Exploring relationships between climate change beliefs and energy preferences: A network analysis of the European Social Survey

This paper explores whether efficacy beliefs can alter the relationship between worry about climate change and personal energy-saving behaviors, controlling for climate change beliefs and socio-demographics. For this purpose, we used data from 23 countries that participated in the European Social Survey Round 8 (N = 44 387). Worry about climate change, personal efficacy, personal outcome expectancy, and collective outcome expectancy were each associated with personal energy-saving behaviors concerning either energy curtailment or energy efficiency. The results further show that outcome expectancies moderate the association between worry about climate change and both types of energy behaviors. Worry was more strongly related to energy curtailment behaviors among those with high levels of personal and collective outcome expectancy. A similar pattern was found for energy efficiency behaviors, which were more strongly predicted by worry about climate change when combined with high levels of collective outcome expectancy. These findings are relevant for climate change communication, especially informational campaigns aiming to lower overall household energy use.

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Four Europes: Climate change beliefs and attitudes predict behavior and policy preferences using a latent class analysis on 23 countries

10.31234/osf.io/rfz98 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ondřej Kácha ◽

Jáchym Vintr ◽

Cameron Brick

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Latent Class Analysis ◽

Latent Class ◽

Social Trust ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Attitudes And Beliefs ◽

Class Analysis ◽

Climate Action ◽

Change Beliefs ◽

Climate Change Attitudes

Building public will for climate action requires designing messages for different audiences. Previous studies that identified groups based on similar beliefs, behavior, and political preferences related to climate change were in single countries and were not pre-registered. The current study ran latent class analysis on the European Social Survey (ESS 2016, N= 44,387) to identify groups of people according to their climate change attitudes and beliefs in 22 European countries and Israel. We found strong evidence for four groups: Engaged (18%), Conflicted (18%), Indifferent (42%), and Skeptical (21%) and we compare the segment structure and proportions within Europe and to other countries. We identify differences between the groups in values, life satisfaction, and social trust, and then revealed that the groups uniquely predict self-reported behaviors not included in the segmentation. The findings characterize climate change beliefs for all of Europe and guide governments and pan-European bodies in designingeffective communications to promote climate beliefs and actions.

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The Effect of Trust on the Various Dimensions of Climate Change Attitudes

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su122310200 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (23) ◽

pp. 10200

Author(s):

Ákos Bodor ◽

Viktor Varjú ◽

Zoltán Grünhut

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Social Trust ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

National Level ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Policy Support ◽

Individual Responsibility ◽

Change Beliefs ◽

The Individual

The struggle against climate change will not be successful without a sufficient level of collective action. However, a necessary precondition for this is the existence of trust between people. The literature on trust and attitudes to climate change is displaying a growing tendency, and today the results of numerous empirical studies are available. Although, for the time being, on the basis of these studies, we only have a fragmented picture from which it appears that trust is having a significant effect on attitudes to climate change at both the micro and macro levels. The current paper tries to progress on this path and reveal the role of trust in various dimensions of the attitude to climate change using the data of the European Social Survey originating from 22 countries. The results show that while climate change beliefs and climate concern display no relationship with trust, neither on the individual or national level, trust does have a clear effect on the feeling of individual responsibility in connection with climate change and on support for the various policy measures. In addition, it is also investigated whether the effect of trust can be shown to exist in the relationships between climate concern and the feeling of individual responsibility, and climate concern and policy support. The results show that in both cases the relationship is stronger in those countries characterized by a higher level of social trust.

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Values, Attitudes and Energy Saving Behaviour in Lithuania

Filosofija Sociologija ◽

10.6001/fil-soc.v32i4.4618 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Vidas Vilčinskas

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Energy Saving ◽

Theory Of Planned Behaviour ◽

Strong Predictor ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Social Survey ◽

The Subject ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Save Energy ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Individual behaviour has a significant role to play in reducing the negative impacts of climate change. The energy sector is a significant component impacting climate. Although individual energy saving behaviour can be perceived as something detached from climate change, it is important because of its impact and is therefore the subject of research. The aim of this study is to identify the main factors influencing energy saving behaviour in Lithuania. The Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Basic Human Values are tested using the European Social Survey Round 8 data. The results show that intention to save energy is the most important factor influencing behaviour. Values are also a strong predictor of energy saving behaviour. Attitudes towards climate change and perceived behavioural control have only a very weak relationship with behaviour.

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The Challenges of Mitigating Climate Change Hidden in End-User Beliefs and Expectations

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052616 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2616

Author(s):

Gerda Žigienė ◽

Egidijus Rybakovas ◽

Edita Gimžauskienė ◽

Vaidas Gaidelys

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Collective Efficacy ◽

Energy Use ◽

Outcome Expectations ◽

Positive Outcome ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Social Environments ◽

Social Survey ◽

Policy Measures ◽

Collective Engagement

This research explores the potential challenges of reducing climate change hidden in the personal and collective energy use-related beliefs and expectations of end users. The study proposes a new typology of social environments, using the concept of personal and collective efficacy, which is suitable for exploring the level and nature of the challenges of solving social problems that require engaging whole societies. We use empirical data from round eight of the European Social Survey, which covers more than 20 European countries, and we employ the basic statistical methods of descriptive statistics, linear correlation and population proportion. The findings suggest that the challenges to climate-change mitigation by changing energy-use behaviour could be hidden in contradictions between beliefs in personal and collective abilities to contribute and positive outcome expectations. This opportunity could be addressed by relevant policy measures, providing more evidence of positive outcomes, even from personal contributions, and developing suitable means for collective contributions to increase awareness and belief in collective engagement.

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Exploring Associations between Attitudes towards Climate Change and Motivational Human Values

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli8110135 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (11) ◽

pp. 135

Author(s):

Narcisa Maria Oliveira Carvalho Dias ◽

Diogo Guedes Vidal ◽

Hélder Fernando Pedrosa e Sousa ◽

Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis ◽

Ângela Leite

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Human Values ◽

Environmental Behaviors ◽

Social Survey ◽

Psychological Constructs ◽

Openness To Change ◽

Global Challenge ◽

Self Transcendence

Climate change (CC) represents a global challenge for humanity. It is known that the impacts of anthropogenic actions are an unequivocal contribution to environmental issues aggravation. Human values are recognized as psychological constructs that guide people in their attitudes and actions in different areas of life, and the promotion of pro-environmental behaviors in the context of CC must be considered a priority. The present work aimed to understand the contribution of attitudes towards CC and selected sociodemographic variables to explain Schwartz’s motivational human values. The sample consists of 1270 Portuguese answering the European social survey (ESS) Round 8. Benevolence and self-transcendence are the most prevalent human values among respondents. The majority believe in CC and less than half in its entirely anthropogenic nature. It was found that the concern with CC and education contributes to explain 11.8% of the conservation variance; gender and concern about CC explain 10.1% of the variance of self-transcendence; and age, gender and concern about CC contribute to explain 13% of the variance of openness to change. This study underlines the main human values’ drivers of attitudes towards CC, central components in designing an effective societal response to CC impacts, which must be oriented towards what matters to individuals and communities, at the risk of being ineffective.

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Distinguishing Interpersonal and Ideological Prosociality: Introducing the Construct of Ideological Prosociality

10.31219/osf.io/yh397 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

John B. Nezlek

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Political Orientation ◽

Social Benefits ◽

Multilevel Analyses ◽

Social Survey ◽

Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽

Helping Others ◽

Prosocial Values ◽

Interpersonal Domain

Prosociality refers to dispositions and behaviors intended to benefit others, and the present study assumed that these dispositions reflect people’s values. Much of the research on prosociality has examined prosociality in what can be called the interpersonal domain, e.g., helping others. I propose that prosociality also exists in the ideological domain. People hold prosocial values that concern collectives, not specific individuals. Multilevel analyses of data collected in Wave 8 of the European Social Survey (44,000 respondents in 23 countries) found significant positive relationships between ideological prosocial values and attitudes toward immigrants and refugees, attitudes about the environment and climate change, gays and lesbians, social benefits, and income equality. Moreover, these relationships remained after controlling participants’ sex, income, happiness, and political orientation. In contrast, with the exception of attitudes about the environment, relationships between these attitudes and interpersonal prosocial values were either negative or not significant.

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Climate Change Views, Energy Policy Preferences, and Intended Actions Across Welfare State Regimes: Evidence from the European Social Survey

International Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1080/00207659.2018.1560979 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 1-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt ◽

Hui Qian ◽

Matthew K. Houser ◽

Aaron M. McCright

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Welfare State ◽

Energy Policy ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Policy Preferences ◽

Social Survey ◽

Welfare State Regimes

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Recovery Self Assessment – Übersetzung und kulturelle Anpassung eines recovery-orientierten Einschätzungsinstrumentes

Pflege ◽

10.1024/1012-5302/a000436 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 233-243 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Gianfranco Zuaboni ◽

Luciana Degano Kieser ◽

Bernd Kozel ◽

Katharina Glavanovits ◽

Jörg Utschakowski ◽

...

Keyword(s):

European Social Survey ◽

Assessment Scale ◽

Self Assessment ◽

Social Survey

Zusammenfassung. Hintergrund: Der Recovery-Ansatz gewinnt in der psychiatrischen Forschung und Praxis zunehmend an Bedeutung. Im englischen Sprachraum ist die praktische Etablierung und wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung fortgeschritten. Um die Implementierung des Ansatzes zu unterstützen, sind Einschätzungsinstrumente notwendig. Ein verbreitetes und anerkanntes Instrument ist die Recovery Self Assessment Scale (RSA). Diese besteht aus vier Versionen eines Fragebogens, welche die Perspektiven von Nutzenden, Fachpersonen, Angehörigen und dem Management erfassen. Ziel/Methode: In diesem Artikel werden die Entwicklung des Instrumentes und der Übersetzungsprozess dargestellt. Zwei voneinander unabhängige Arbeitsgruppen verwendeten unterschiedliche Übersetzungsverfahren: Die Arbeitsgruppe aus der Schweiz (AGS) orientierte sich an den ISOR-Prinzipien, die Arbeitsgruppe aus Norddeutschland (AGN) an den Richtlinien des European Social Survey Programme zur Übersetzung von Fragebögen – TRAPD. Die Methoden unterscheiden sich darin, dass die TRAPD Fokusgruppen vorsieht. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeitsgruppen wurden mittels eines Konsensusverfahrens zur RSA-D zusammengeführt. Ergebnisse: Bei der Übersetzung und kulturellen Anpassung der RSA-D wurde die Nähe zum theoretischen Bezugsrahmen der RSA gewahrt und die Übertragbarkeit in den deutschsprachigen Kontext berücksichtigt. Schlussfolgerung: Bevor die RSA-D in der Praxis und Forschung eingesetzt werden kann, sollte in weiterführenden Studien die psychometrische Testung erfolgen.

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Power Values and Power Distance Moderate the Relationship Between Workplace Supervisory Power and Job Satisfaction

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000257 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 135-141

Author(s):

Kenneth D. Locke

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Multilevel Modeling ◽

Power Distance ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Social Survey ◽

The Relationship ◽

Workplace Power ◽

Over Time

Abstract. Person–job (or needs–supplies) discrepancy/fit theories posit that job satisfaction depends on work supplying what employees want and thus expect associations between having supervisory power and job satisfaction to be more positive in individuals who value power and in societies that endorse power values and power distance (e.g., respecting/obeying superiors). Using multilevel modeling on 30,683 European Social Survey respondents from 31 countries revealed that overseeing supervisees was positively associated with job satisfaction, and as hypothesized, this association was stronger among individuals with stronger power values and in nations with greater levels of power values or power distance. The results suggest that workplace power can have a meaningful impact on job satisfaction, especially over time in individuals or societies that esteem power.

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