Transcription
[Music] Today we're talking about environmental concern and environmental values. These are important "pro-environmental attitudes."
Environmental psychologists define "environmental concern" as the degree to which people are concerned about the environment. More specifically, they want to know the degree to which people are aware of environmental problems; the degree to which they worry about environmental problems; the degree to which they support efforts to solve environmental problems; and also the degree to which they are personally committed to doing something about environmental problems. Here is a short sample of a climate change environmental concern measure. Researchers use measures like this to study environmental concern and its relationship to pro-environmental behavior, including the advocacy of and support for pro-environmental policies.
Psychologists also study environmental values. Values are the guiding principles in a person's life, and "environmental values" are guiding principles in a person's life that are related to their environmental concern and to their pro-environmental behavior. What matters to you, and how does it relate to how much you care about different types of environmental problems? Do some matter more to you than others because of your values? How do the guiding principles of your life relate to your pro-environmental behavior---that is, what you do to help preserve and save the environment? For example, if above all you value yourself and your comfort and convenience, how does that relate to your consumer choices that contribute to environmental problems?
Next we're going to talk about two of the best-known approaches to the study of environmental values. The first one is called the "New Ecological Paradigm," and the second is called the Value Sources of Environmental Concern. As we go along, keep this in mind--what are your values, and how do they relate to your environmental concern and your pro-environmental action?
[Music] Let's start with the NEP, or the New Ecological Paradigm, developed first by an environmental sociologist named Riley Dunlap. NEP theorists say that there are two worldviews which impact people's environmental concern and their pro-environmental behavior. The Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP) is the way that most people think, and they say that it's responsible for the environmental mess that we're in. Meanwhile, they say we need to shift to a new ecological paradigm (NEP), a new worldview, and this is the way we need to think to save ourselves and the planet. So let's talk about each of these paradigms.
NEP theorists explain that the dominant social Paradigm, or DSP, views humans as separate from and superior to Nature. In contrast, the New Ecological Paradigm, or NEP, views humans as a part of nature. Research on the New Ecological Paradigm is conducted with a measure that's called the NEP. It's a 15-item measure, and it has five sub-scales; each measures a different category of belief, and each subscale has three items. People are asked how strongly they agree or disagree with 15 statements that represent these different beliefs. These five sub-scales measure "reality of limits to growth"--you can see a sample item here, "We're approaching the limit of the number of people the Earth can support." Rejection of exemptionalism is another sub-scale. This one is about the belief that humans are exempt from eventual environmental disaster because they're so smart they can always solve any problem they create. You can see here an item that says, "Human Ingenuity will ensure that we do not make the Earth unlivable." This one is reverse-scored because if you agree with it, you do believe in exemptionalism. The Integrity of Nature's Balance is about, as you see here, the balance of nature being delicate and easily upset. The possibility of eco-crisis is your belief that if things continue on their present course, major environmental disaster is likely. And finally, anti-anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism is the belief that humans matter more than anything else and that we're the center of the earth and the universe, so anti-anthropocentrism is the opposite---it means that you think that plants, animals, and nature are equally as important as humans.
Now let's stop to think about this for a second. NEP theorists hypothesize that people that operate according to the New Ecological Paradigm are more environmentally concerned and also perform more pro-environmental behavior. In other words, believing in the New Ecological Paradigm in comparison to the Dominant Social Paradigm motivates environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. Likewise, NEP theorists believe that a shift to the new ecological paradigm is necessary for our future survival. Let's face it, the Earth's resources and resilience are limited, and we can't go on acting as though this isn't true. We have to stop acting as though we're the only relevant life on Earth. We have to recognize that our fate is tied to the health of the planet. We have to acknowledge that our actions can endanger the health of the planet and our health and survival.
[Music] Another values-based approach is centered on the distinction between "self-enhancement values" and "self-transcendence values." This comes from a psychologist named Schwartz. Are your values mostly about your self-interest, what values theorist Schwartz called self-enhancement values? Self-enhancement values include "hedonic values." These are values that prioritize your comfort and your convenience. Self-enhancement values also include "egoistic values." These are values which prioritize your personal wealth, your personal status, and your personal power. Research finds that self-enhancement values are negatively related to environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. Now this makes sense when you think about it: If your values are primarily about your personal comfort, convenience, and material wealth, you're not going to care as much about environmental problems or act sustainably unless it benefits you personally.
In contrast to these self-enhancement values are what Schwartz called self-transcendence values. Are the guiding principles of your life more focused on the interests of other people, society, and animals, what Schwartz called self-transcendence values? I should point out that self-transcendence values can be broken down into "social altruistic values" and "biospheric values." Values focused on the well-being of other people and society are what we call social altruistic values. Values focused on the well-being of nature or wildlife and animals are called biospheric values. Self-transcendence values are positively related to environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior, and you can see why when you think about it. Environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior often require caring about other people and nature above yourself and your personal comfort and convenience. When you think about it, self-transcendent values are more likely to promote environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior.
Next we're talking about the value sources of environmental concern model from P. Wesley Schultz. It builds on Schwartz's research, but it adds an interesting element because it suggests that environmental concern can be motivated by egoistic, social altruistic, or biospheric values.
[Music] The tripartite value basis theory of environmental concern is another popular approach, and it's also known as the value sources of environmental concern. Developed by an applied social psychologist named P. Wesley Schultz, it suggests that people act pro-environmentally based on their egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric values. In other words, whether the values they live by are focused on themselves, other people, or on nature, including animals. These values are said to explain why people do or do not care about environmental problems. Schultz developed a 12-item measure of these three value sources of environmental concern. The value sources of environmental concern measure consists of 12 environmental concern items that you rate with a 10-point scale that's anchored by "not at all important" to "supreme importance," with a neutral midpoint. The measure begins with the prompt, "I am concerned about environmental problems because of the consequences for..." Four items measure biospheric value sources of environmental concern--in other words, caring about environmental problems because you value birds, animals, plants, nature, trees. Four items measure egoistic value sources of environmental concern--in other words, caring about environmental problems because of how they impact your health, your lifestyle, your prosperity, and the future of you and your loved ones. The remaining four items measure social altruistic sources of environmental concern. These are about caring about environmental problems because of how they impact future generations, people in the community, children, and humanity in general. Agreeing with the items is positively correlated with pro-environmental behavior and other measures of environmental concern.
Now one interesting implication of this is that if you want to increase someone's environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior, it makes sense to persuade them based on their values. And that's called "values framing." Values framing is designing pro-environmental communications to appeal to different environmental values to maximize their effectiveness. So think about this for a second. For hunters, fishers, campers with egoistic values, connect forests and wildlife conservation to the sustainability of their hobby. For a person with social altruistic values from a collectivist, family-oriented culture, connect environmental concern to their children's and grandchildren's futures. For a person with biospheric values, emphasize how the problem affects animals, wildlife, and nature.
[Music] Let's say a little bit about diversity and environmental concern. This is something else environmental psychologists have studied. I think you'll agree that humans are not homogeneous; they are different. They vary as individuals, and they also vary based on the groups that they identify with and that they're a part of. Most of the research has looked at gender and culture and environmental concern.
As far as gender goes, the differences aren't large, but women and men differ in their environmental attitudes and behaviors. In the U.S., public opinion polls find that more women than men say the country should do whatever it takes to protect the environment. In comparison to women, men are more likely to support increased use of nuclear power and to support offshore oil and gas drilling. Studies also find that women score higher in environmental concern than men do, a finding that's found across cultures. Women are more likely to endorse the new environmental paradigm, the NEP, which views humans as part of nature. They more strongly agree that we shouldn't upset the carefully balanced ecosystem and that human behavior may create eco-crisis. Women also tend to score higher than men on some important values underlying environmental concern. Remember, according to psychologists like P. Wesley Schultz, people act pro-environmentally based on their egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric values, and these values may explain why people do or do not care about environmental problems. Women not only score higher than men on these values, but they also place a higher value on altruism, sometimes called self-transcendence, the value most associated with environmentalism.
Now some might say these gender differences occur because menstruation and childbirth connect women to nature. Others suggest a "motherhood mentality" arising from women's roles as childbearers and caregivers. They say this puts women more in touch with the interconnectedness of humans and nature. But most researchers attribute gender differences in environmental concern to value differences arising from traditional gender socialization. Females are more likely to be socialized to be communal and other-centered, which is more consistent with the values of self-transcendence related to environmentalism. Meanwhile, males are more likely to be socialized to be agents and competitive, which is more consistent with the self-enhancement values contrary to environmentalism and also consistent with efforts to dominate nature.
Women play a central role in environmental sustainability, particularly in the home realm where they influence the family's adoption of home sustainability behaviors. Women also have a long track record as grassroots environmental activists, often acting because environmental degradation directly affects their daily activities and their family's health and well-being. Despite this, though, men dominate environmentalism at all levels as scientific and economic experts, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and spokespeople. This matters because it's resulted in a focus on masculine, technological, and scientific solutions at the expense of more feminine approaches focused on behavior change and living more harmoniously with nature.
Having said all that, I feel it's a little dangerous to gender environmentalism. Sure, we could see these feminine and masculine approaches in a yin/yang way, but I don't like that this labeling suggests that some forms of environmentalism are the domain of women and some of men. These differences are actually modest and result more from nurture than nature, and such labels may discourage men from adopting environmental worldviews that emphasize living harmoniously with nature---worldviews key to environmental sustainability. And likewise, they may also discourage women's participation in key forms of environmentalism traditionally dominated by men.
As far as culture and environmental concern, there are ways in which we are the same and ways in which we are different based on culture. And the way in which we're the same is that recent research indicates that people all over the world are concerned about environmental problems and support efforts to do something about them. So the World Values Survey, for instance, finds that the majority of people worldwide agree that looking after the environment is an important personal goal. Tam and Chan, two environmental psychologists who are working in Hong Kong, say that environmental concern is so high worldwide for lots of different reasons. These include what they call "post-materialist value changes," due to the direct experiences that people have with environmental degradation worldwide, and from a global extension of environmental organizations and networks.
As I suggested before, though, research does find cultural differences--so yes, we are the same in that environmental concern is widespread internationally--but we're also different, you know. So, for instance, samples from the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, and Russia find that people from those countries score higher on egoistic environmental concern than they do on biospheric concern, whereas samples from Latin America find the opposite. Ethnic groups in the United States also differ in their environmental concern. So, for example, some studies find that greater environmental concern among minority samples that are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards. Political affiliation affects environmental values and concern. Some research finds in the U.S. that, in comparison to Democrats, Republicans tend to score higher on egoistic environmental values and that their levels of environmental concern tend to be lower.
There are lots of other research findings on variables that influence environmental concern, and these include things like rural and urban differences and recreational activities and how those affect your environmental concern. Your education, your religion, and your personality are studied. But these findings are so nuanced that general claims are definitely difficult to make. But we do know people vary, and they vary based on culture; they vary based on gender; they vary based on politics; they vary based on all kinds of different factors.
The growth in environmental concern is a good thing. We have a lot of environmental problems, and it's good for people to be concerned and for people to align their values with sustainability. That is a good thing.
Next time we'll be talking about the relationship between environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. We'll also be talking about barriers to pro-environmental behavior, and we will also be talking about psychological solutions to environmental problems, particularly how to promote pro-environmental behavior. Until next time, take care, and take care of the environment.
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