This paper explores how general environmental knowledge shapes environmental attitudes, behavioral intentions, and pro-environmental behaviors in relation to the surrounding environment. Structural ...equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping estimation was conducted to assess a causal chain from environmental knowledge to pro-environmental behaviors with a nationally representative sample of 2824 respondents from China. The results show that environmental knowledge has a significant positive effect on environmental attitudes, environmental attitudes have a significant positive effect on environmental behavioral intentions and pro-environmental behaviors, and environmental behavioral intentions have a significant positive effect on pro-environmental behaviors. We also concluded that although environmental knowledge has no significant direct effects on pro-environmental behaviors, it is a crucial distal variable whose significant effect is fully mediated by environmental attitudes and environmental behavioral intentions. The results of the multigroup SEM showed that the moderating effect of external context on the relationship between environmental behavioral intentions and pro-environmental behaviors and various demographic variables (e.g., gender, urban vs. rural residence, education level, and region) have diverse effects on the model in this study.
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•Assessing a causal chain from environmental knowledge (EK) to pro-environmental behaviors (PEB).•Assessing the mediating role of environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions in transition from EK to PEB.•EK itself does not work, only once the affective system is activated does protective action become probable.•The multigroup SEM showed that various demographic variables have diverse effects on the model in this study.
•Perceived greenspace abundance and visibility associated with objective greenspace.•Objective greenspace less associated with greenspace access, usage or quality.•Perceptions of greenspace exposure ...higher among white, high SES participants.•Environmental attitudes influence perceptions of greenspace exposure.
This study explores the relationship between perceived and objective greenspace exposure, and how sociodemographic traits and environmental attitudes influence peoples’ perceptions of greenspace.
We leveraged a cross-sectional survey on greenspace exposure among residents of Denver, CO that ran from November 2019 through April 2021. We measured objective greenspace using the average NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), average percent vegetation, and median GVI (green view index) within 300, 500, and 1,000 m of participants’ residences, and in participant-drawn polygons representing their neighborhoods. We measured perceived greenspace exposure using survey responses from questions about greenspace abundance, visibility, access, usage, and quality near participants’ homes. We assessed relationships between perceived and objective greenspace measures using linear models. Then, we used latent class analysis to create perceived greenspace exposure classes, and used linear models to evaluate the relationship between these classes and sociodemographic and environmental attitude variables.
We found that the relationship between perceived and objective measures (NDVI in the 300-meter buffer) was strongest for abundance (OR: 5.14, 4.0, 6.28) and visibility (OR: 3.71, 2.58, 4.84) compared to perceived access (OR: 2.17, 1.02, 3.32), usage (OR: 2.28, 1.19, 3.37), and quality (OR: 2.33, 1.25, 3.41). In fully adjusted models, objective greenspace exposure and environmental attitudes predicted perceived greenspace exposure classes, but sociodemographic variables—other than age—did not.
Our work suggests that objective greenspace exposure is only one factor influencing peoples’ perceived greenspace exposure, and that environmental attitude variables may play an additional role in shaping peoples’ perceptions.
Over 40 million people in the U.S. Southwest depend on water from the Colorado River. Seven States, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, have rights to the river. For ...millions of years, it has carved its way from high in the western Rocky Mountains south and west, skirting the borders of California, Nevada, and Arizona before giving its water to a delta in Mexico. It rarely makes it to the Gulf of California, its original terminus. The Colorado Plateau encompasses over 150,000 square miles. The plateau includes geologic wonders like the Grand Canyon, Black Canyon of the Gunnison River, Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Reservation, Canyonlands, Arches, and Rainbow Bridge, among others. The authors recommend that we turn to the past and include the perspectives of diverse communities, who have ties to the region and its waters going back centuries to avoid a water shortage in the future.
Environmental challenges are often marked by an intergroup dimension. Political conservatives and progressives are divided on their beliefs about climate change, farmers come into conflict with ...scientists and environmentalists over water allocation or species protection, and communities oppose big business and mining companies that threaten their local environment. These intergroup tensions are reminders of the powerful influence social contexts and group memberships can have on attitudes, beliefs, and actions relating to climate change and the environment more broadly. In this paper, we use social identity theory to help describe and explain these processes. We review literature showing, how conceiving of oneself in terms of a particular social identity influences our environmental attitudes and behaviors, how relations between groups can impact on environmental outcomes, and how the content of social identities can direct group members to act in more or less pro-environmental ways. We discuss the similarities and differences between the social identity approach to these phenomena and related theories, such as cultural cognition theory, the theory of planned behavior, and value-belief-norm theory. Importantly, we also advance social-identity based strategies to foster more sustainable environmental attitudes and behaviors. Although this theoretical approach can provide important insights and potential solutions, more research is needed to build the empirical base, especially in relation to testing social identity solutions.
That social desirability might be a confounder of people's survey responses regarding environmental actions has been discussed for a long time. To produce evidence for or against this assumption, we ...conducted meta-analyses of correlations between social desirability scales and self-reports of environmentally relevant behaviors, intentions, and (broadly defined) attitudes, based on data from 29 previously published papers. The pooled correlations with social desirability are generally small, ranging from 0.06 to 0.11 (0.08-0.13 when correcting for measurement error attenuation). However, our results do not lead to the conclusion that social desirability can be completely disregarded by environmental psychologists as a potential confounder. For example, we found evidence of substantial heterogeneity across studies, so the effect of social desirability may be more pronounced in specific cases. Continued attention to social desirability bias is needed to fully understand its possible subtle effects.
Widespread political polarization on issues related to environmental conservation may be partially explained by the chronic framing of persuasive messages in ideological and moral terms that hold ...greater appeal for liberals and egalitarians. A series of three experiments examined the extent to which variations in the moral framing of pro-environmental messaging affect liberals' vs. conservatives' conservation intentions, climate change attitudes, and donations to an environmental organization. While liberals did not generally differ across conditions, conservatives shifted substantially in the pro-environmental direction after exposure to a binding moral frame, in which protecting the natural environment was portrayed as a matter of obeying authority, defending the purity of nature, and demonstrating one's patriotism to the United States. This shift was pronounced when conservatives perceived the congruent appeal to be a stronger argument. Evidence of mediated moderation is also presented, in which the attitudinal and behavioral shifts for conservatives were a function of the degree to which the values present in the pro-environmental appeal were perceived as coming from the ingroup. Discussion focuses on future directions for more precisely specifying moral framing effects, and on considering the pros and cons of targeted messaging for the sustainability of environmental attitude change.
•Participants were presented with one of three different moral frames.•Political liberals were consistent in their pro-environmental attitudes across conditions.•Political conservatives displayed more pro-environmental attitudes after a binding moral frame.•Attitude change was mediated by perceptions that the moral frame came from the ingroup.
Given the urgency of climate change mitigation, motivating individuals to behave in sustainable ways constitutes a key challenge for environmental science. Although many studies evidence people’s ...long-lasting pro-environmental attitudes, such attitudes often do not translate into behavior. The present research hypothesizes that cognitive resources are a crucial moderator, explaining when pro-environmental attitudes turn into behavior. Specifically, we investigate the attitude–behavior gap while taking a “cognition perspective” on environmental behavior. Using experience sampling, the present research demonstrates that individual differences in central aspects of cognitive control (assessed by working memory capacity) moderate the relationship between environmental attitudes and behavior. Our correlational findings suggest that people with positive environmental attitudes also require high working memory capacity to behave in line with their ideals. Our results do not only provide empirical support for recent theorizing in environmental research, but, perhaps more importantly, might offer a central lever for behavioral change initiatives (e.g., “nudging”).
Tackling climate change presents an intergenerational dilemma: People must make sacrifices today, to benefit future generations. What causes people to feel an obligation to benefit future ...generations? Past research has suggested “intergenerational reciprocity” as a potential driver, but this research is quite domain specific, and it is unknown how well it applies to climate change. We explored a novel means of invoking a sense of intergenerational reciprocity: inducing reflection on the sacrifices made by previous generations. Our studies revealed that such reflection predicts and causes a heightened sense of moral obligation towards future generations, mediated by gratitude. However, there are also some downsides (e.g., feelings of unworthiness), and perceptions of obligation do not substantially affect pro-environmental attitudes or motivations. Thus, while reflecting on past generations’ sacrifices can generate a sense of intergenerational obligation, it is limited in the extent to which it can increase pro-environmental concern.
Environmental attitudes (EA), a crucial construct in environmental psychology, are a psychological tendency expressed by evaluating the natural environment with some degree of favour or disfavour. ...There are hundreds of EA measures available based on different conceptual and theoretical frameworks, and most researchers prefer to generate new measures rather than organize those already available. The present research provides a cumulative and theoretical approach to the measurement of EA, in which the multidimensional and hierarchical nature of EA is considered. Reported are findings from three studies on the development of a psychometrically sound, multidimensional inventory to assess EA cross-culturally, the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI). The EAI has twelve specific scales that capture the main facets measured by previous research. The twelve factors were established through confirmatory factor analyses, and the EAI scales are shown to be unidimensional scales with high internal consistency, homogeneity and high test-retest reliability, and also to be largely free from social desirability.
•Under Paris Agreement countries agreed to control the environment degradation.•Experts look for new financial instruments to finance climate-friendly projects.•Green Bonds are specially designed ...financial instruments to finance green projects.•We conducted a through review on development and consequences of green bonds.•For sustainable development, role of the green bonds is vital to finance projects.
Industrial development in the last century have some negative consequences, and environmental concern is one of them. The practitioners and researchers are trying to study the mechanism of funding for environment-friendly projects and how it affects its stakeholders. To the best of our understanding, no literature review is conducted to analyze the factors associated with the growth and the impact of green bonds on issuers' fundamental performance measures to meet Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives. This review attempts to fill the gap in the literature and classify studies based on and give a comprehensive overview of factors associated with the green bonds. This review highlighted that financing is an essential factor to support sustainable development, and there are some challenges to gather finances for environment-friendly projects. Green bonds are one of the financial instruments to finance such tasks, and they provide capital to fund green projects. We argue that the favorable regulatory environment and improvement in disclosure quality are essential factors for the growth of green bonds. Moreover, the review also highlighted the impact on the fundamental characteristics of the issuer of green bonds and if it gives some advantages over other financial securities. Lastly, we also suggested some future directions of research on the topic.
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