scholarly journals Big Five Facets’ Associations with Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Raymond Bryce Soutter ◽  
René Mõttus

Climate change mandates us to understand why individual’s (do not) act environmentally and personality traits are well suited for this purpose. Research has mostly focused on broad do-main-level associations between personality traits and pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes. In two datasets (N = 501 and 287), we examined whether facets provided a more detailed picture of these association. Some facets were found to be the main drivers of the do-main-level associations. Out-sample prediction analysis showed that facets collectively predicted pro-environmental attitudes (r = .50 to .52) and behaviors (r = .29 to .42), but domains matched them. Therefore, facets provided a greater understanding of traits’ association with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors than domains, but no additional overall predictive power.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Raymond Bryce Soutter ◽  
Timothy C. Bates ◽  
René Mõttus

With climate change and its consequences believed to be among the most vital challenges for humanity and the Earth’s ecosystem, it is important to understand why individuals do or do not adopt proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors. Personality traits are well suited for this purpose. Because no recent work has systematically combined the accumulating evidence on this topic, we aimed to meta-analyze the associations of the Big Five and HEXACO personality domains with proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors. A meta-analysis of 38 sources ( N = 44,993) implicated openness and honesty-humility as the strongest correlates of proenvironmental attitudes ( r = .22 and .20) and behaviors ( r = .21 and .25). Agreeableness, conscientiousness, and, to a lesser extent, extraversion were also associated with proenvironmental attitudes ( r = .15, .12, and .09) and behaviors ( r = .10, .11, and .10). Heterogeneity among effect sizes was partly explained by samples’ gender ratio, age, and country of origin and by the personality model. P-curve analyses, funnel plots, and Egger’s tests indicated significant but sporadic and small publication bias. As a validity test, the meta-analytic associations collectively provided substantial predictive accuracy for proenvironmental attitudes ( r = .44–.45) and behaviors ( r = .28–.43) in independent holdout samples.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 611-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dian Gu ◽  
Shuqing Gao ◽  
Rong Wang ◽  
Jiang Jiang ◽  
Yan Xu

Previous studies have shown that materialism is related to environmentalism, but unstable findings still exist. To clarify the relationships between materialism and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, the present study addressed some methodological issues and provided both individual- and regional-level evidence from China. Using data from the World Value Survey and the Chinese General Social Survey, we observed that materialism was negatively associated with pro-environmental attitudes (Study 1, n = 2,300; Study 2, n = 3,672) and pro-environmental behaviors (Study 2). Moreover, we found that pro-environmental attitudes partially mediated the association between materialism and pro-environmental behaviors in Study 2. We further searched for additional regional evidence in Study 3, and we found that the more materialistic regions are, the more energy is consumed. Results indicate that materialism is associated with decreases in pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089020702110162
Author(s):  
Christopher J Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Taciano L Milfont ◽  
Chris G Sibley ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn

Withstanding the climate crisis will depend in part on individuals behaving in a more environmentally sustainable manner. However, relatively little is known about the individual factors that promote sustainable attitudes and behaviors (SABs). Although there are established cross-sectional associations between personality traits and SABs, it is unclear whether changes in personality are related to increases in SABs over time, and how personality is differentially related to specific SABs. Using data from 61,479 participants in New Zealand, we tested preregistered hypotheses about how personality codevelops with valuing the environment, believing in climate change, concern about climate change, personal environmental efficacy, personal environmental sacrifice, and support for the Green Party. We found that SABs generally increased from 2009 to 2017, although there was variation across age cohorts, SAB variables, and samples. We replicated concurrent correlations between broad personality traits—particularly Agreeableness, Openness, and Honesty/Humility—and SABs and present novel evidence that increases in SAB are related to changes in traits, particularly Agreeableness. These findings have implications for both understanding the factors associated with changes in SABs over time and understanding the factors that drive personality change.


Author(s):  
Emily C. Taylor ◽  
Lucy A. Livingston ◽  
Mitchell J. Callan ◽  
Paul H.P. Hanel ◽  
Punit Shah

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-35
Author(s):  
Markus Hadler ◽  
Beate Klösch ◽  
Stephan Schwarzinger ◽  
Markus Schweighart ◽  
Rebecca Wardana ◽  
...  

AbstractThis chapter provides an overview of the theoretical approaches to environmental attitudes and behaviors. It includes a discussion of different scales and surveys used in other programs with a focus on this topic. Scales measuring general environmental behavior, just like items in surveys, tend to focus on behavioral intentions and are correlated with environmentally friendly attitudes. In contrast, emission-related behavior depends more on context and socio-demographic characteristics and is rarely asked in surveys. Gaps frequently occur between environmental attitudes and general behaviors—the value-action gap—and between environmental behaviors and the actual ecological consequences of actions—the behavior-impact gap. Finally, previous results and problems encountered in the validation of self-reports on environmental behavior are highlighted.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Soutter ◽  
René Mõttus

Although the scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change continues to grow, public discourse still reflects a high level of scepticism and political polarisation towards anthropogenic climate change. In this study (N = 499) we attempted to replicate and expand upon an earlier finding that environmental terminology (“climate change” versus “global warming”) could partly explain political polarisation in environmental scepticism (Schuldt, Konrath, & Schwarz, 2011). Participants completed a series of online questionnaires assessing personality traits, political preferences, belief in environmental phenomenon, and various pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Those with a Conservative political orientation and/or party voting believed less in both climate change and global warming compared to those with a Liberal orientation and/or party voting. Furthermore, there was an interaction between continuously measured political orientation, but not party voting, and question wording on beliefs in environmental phenomena. Personality traits did not confound these effects. Furthermore, continuously measured political orientation was associated with pro-environmental attitudes, after controlling for personality traits, age, gender, area lived in, income, and education. The personality domains of Openness, and Conscientiousness, were consistently associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, whereas Agreeableness was associated with pro-environmental attitudes but not with behaviours. This study highlights the importance of examining personality traits and political preferences together and suggests ways in which policy interventions can best be optimised to account for these individual differences.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-350
Author(s):  
Shyang-Chyuan Fang ◽  
Tai-Yi Yu

This study establishes a behavioral model for university students by utilizing the theories of planned behavior and value-belief-norm, and proposes key latent variables for risk perception toward climate change to establish a structural equation model. Partial least squares analyses and three indicators are utilized to test the reliability, validity, and goodness-of-fit of the model. This study establishes a mixed model with formative and reflective indicators, and assesses both environmental concern and personality traits as formative indicators. Using standardized path coefficients, eight out of 10 paths demonstrate statistical significance, indicating that environmental value and environmental attitudes influence environmental behavior. Three of the five included personality traits (e.g., agreeableness, extraversion, and openness) demonstrate a positive correlation with environmental behavior and environmental attributes. Individuals’ risk perception positively influences their environmental value, environmental attitudes, and environmental behavior with respect to climate change. Keywords: climate change, environmental behavior, partial least square, personality trait.


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