Cross-cultural research faces a nearly unsurmountable challenge: Psychological attributes must be assessed with formally equivalent (i.e., commensurable) measurement instruments. Otherwise, meaningful comparisons of attributes, such as attitude levels, across societies are impossible. As commensurable attitude measures have been an unattainable goal so far in cross-cultural research, we employ an alternative, item response theory-based approach that explicitly models the incommensurability of measures in its comparison of people’s environmental attitude levels among countries. In our reanalysis of Eurobarometer data (N = 27,998), we found significant differences in people’s environmental attitude in the 28 states of the European Union, with Sweden at the high end and Poland at the low end of the spectrum. Despite the differences between countries though, the within-country variability substantially exceeded the between-country variability. Thus, we conclude that personal influences carry comparatively more weight than societal influences when we aim to promote environmental protection in Europe.
Translation of measurement instruments and their reliability
