Individual differences in pro-environmental behaviour

Environmental Psychology

• Emerged in the late 1950s.

• Initially focused on the physical environment (Proshanky et al., 1979).

• Expanded to explore the interrelationship between people and their socio-physical environment (Stokols & Altman, 1987).

Topics in Environmental Psychology

• The psychological significance of place.

• Displacement (e.g., forced migration, natural disasters).

• Place, wellbeing, and social exclusion.

• Biophilia and the restorative impacts of nature.

• Environmental interventions.

• Climate change and mental health.

• Climate activism.

• Politics, media, and the environment.

Climate Change

• The scientific community is united in their view on climate change.

• This view is informed by over 50 years of empirical evidence.

• Climate change, influenced by human activity, poses a considerable threat to life on Earth (Hodson, 2017).

• The majority of scientists express urgency in limiting climate change to secure the quality of life on Earth (Maibach, Myers, & Leiserowitz, 2014; Ripple et al., 2017).

A Role for Psychology?

• Psychological research into addressing climate change has considered factors such as:

  • Risk perception (E.g., Chan, 2018).

  • Psychological distance (E.g., Loy & Spence, 2020).

  • Models of behaviour change (E.g., Mancha & Yoder, 2015).

  • Personality (E.g., Milfont & Sibley, 2012).

  • Values.

Personality

• Research has generally focused on the 'big 5' personality characteristics:

  • Neuroticism (emotional stability).

  • Extraversion.

  • Openness.

  • Agreeableness.

  • Conscientiousness.

• Openness to experience is the biggest predictor (Soutter et al., 2020).

• Interventions may therefore focus on helping people adopt new patterns of behaviour.

• More recently, research has turned to the 'dark' and 'light' facets of personality (Kaufman et al., 2019; Paulhus & Williams, 2002)

Dark

• Machiavellianism

• Narcissism

• Psychopathy

Light

• Kantianism

• Humanism

• Faith in humanity

• Dark triad personality traits negatively correlate with pro-environmental behaviour (e.g., Huang et al., 2019).

• Light personality traits positively correlate with pro-environmental behaviour (Kesenheimer & Greimeyer).

Values

• Values can be described as desirable transactional goals that vary in importance and serve as guiding principles for our own behaviour and that of others (Schwartz, 1992).

• Three key factors:

  • Beliefs about the desirability or undesirability of certain end-states.

  • Abstract constructs that transcend specific situations (different from 'goals,' which are only targeted until achieved; values are continually adhered to).

  • Serve as guiding principles for the evaluation of people and events.

• Values are ordered in a system of value priorities.

• When competing values clash, we can make a choice according to this value.

• Values are ideal for understanding environmental behaviour:

  • An economically efficient instrument for distinguishing and explaining individual differences in people.

  • As considered abstract, influencing attitudes and behaviour, can be utilised to predict behaviours in different contexts (Seligman & Katz, 1996).

  • Provide a stable and relatively enduring basis for attitudes and behaviours (Stern, Dietz, Kalfo & Guagano, 1995)

  • The relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and environmental behaviours is well-documented (Olander, 2006).

  • Form the basis for value theories of environmental behaviour.

Social Value Orientations (SVO)

• Origins of theory lie in social dilemma research - the extent to which people are concerned about their own and others’ payoff in situations of dilemma (Messick & McClintock, 1968).

• A common distinction within this research:

  • Cooperatives

  • Individuals

  • Competitors

Cooperative SVO

• Such individuals are motivated by a desire to maximise joint outcomes

Individual SVO

• Motivated by a desire to maximise own positive outcome, holding no concern for the outcome of others

Competitive SVO

• Seek to maximise own positive outcomes in relation to those of others

• Different SVOs have been determined through the use of the decomposed game technique (Liebrand, 1984).

• These require participants to choose between options that offer points to them and other individual. For example:

• Evidence found revealing a relationship between SVO theory and environmental beliefs, norms, and behaviour.

• Pro-social values have been found to be positively related to pro-environmental behaviour.

• Pro-self values have been shown to be negatively related with pro-environmental behaviour (Joireman, Lasane, Bennett, Richards & Solaimaini, 2001).

Schwartz' Value Theory

• Proposes a 'taxonomy' of 56 values.

• Each of these covered in a psychometric measure.

• Respondents required to value each item on a 9-point scale of their importance as a 'guiding principle in their life.'

• Through data collected on this from 44 countries, identified 10 motivational types.

Motivational Types

• Stimulation: Seeks novelty, excitement, and challenges.

• Self-direction: Values independence of thought and action.

• Power: Values social status and prestige, commonly holding a desire to control people and /or resources.

• Achievement: Values personal success and achievement, seeks to demonstrate competence.

• Hedonism: Primary goal of enjoying life.

• Universalism: Values appreciation and respect of others, seeking to protect the larger society and environment over their own self-interests.

• Benevolence: Seeks to maximise the wellbeing of those individuals close to them.

• Tradition: Values the customs of society, respects tradition.

• Conformity: Seeks to avoid actions that are likely to upset social norms or the 'status quo'.

• Security: Prioritises safety and the stability of society, relationships, and oneself.

• These types can then been seen to form a 'circumplex' structure

• The closer the types are in the circumplex, the more compatible they are.

• The further apart, the less compatible.

• Eg: Universal values such as ‘broadminded’ and equality and related to benevolent values, such as ‘helpful’ and ‘forgiving’.

• However, the same values conflict with achievement values, e.g., ‘successful’, ‘capable’, and ‘ambitious’.

• Schwartz states: values alone have little meaning, but rather, reflect the relative priority of values in relation to others.

• This is seen to provide a clearer value structure.

Dimensions

• First dimension:

  • Openness to change v conservativism

  • Openness to new things, ideas, experiences & adherence to ‘ritualistic’ patterns of behaviour

• Second dimension:

  • Distinguishes values that stress the importance of others to those that emphasise self-interest

• Third dimension:

  • Self-transcendence v self enhancement

  • Altruistic V egoistic

  • Can be compared to pro-social v pro-self of SVO theory

• Schwartz (2012): postulates how the interaction of these distinct values may manifest:

  • Power & Achievement: social superiority and esteem

  • Achievement & Hedonism: Self-centred satisfaction seeking

  • Benevolence & universalism: enhancement of others and transcendence from selfish interests

  • Benevolence and tradition: devotion to one’s group

• The pro-self versus pro-social dimension has been shown to be important in explaining environmental beliefs, norms and behaviours (Eg: Stern, Diet & guagano, 1998; de Groot & Steg, 2008; Nordlund & Garville, 2002)

Personality and Values

• Machiavellianism & narcissism – positive related to achievement and power.

• Psychopathy related to hedonism and power (Jonason et al., 2020).

• Dark triad traits negatively related to benevolence (Kaufman et al., 2019).

• Light personality traits associated with:

  • Self-transcendence (+)

  • Self-enhancement (-)

• Self-transcendence and openness to change both + predictors of pro-environmental behaviour.

• Self-enhancement and conservativism both negative predictors of pro-environmental behaviour (Karp, 1996).

• Nordlund & Garville (2002): ‘high self- transcendence more aware of threat to the environment, stronger moral obligation’

How Do Values Affect Environmental Behaviour?

• What does ‘valuing the environment’ actually mean?

• Theories have attempted to unpick the relationship between values and pro-environmental behaviour, but how do we use this knowledge?

• Valuing nature may influence behaviour in different ways – same value may illicit different (perhaps the opposite!) behaviours.

• Behaviour specific attributes have been found to be stronger predictors of behaviour (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993).

• Research has shown values do influence behaviour, but indirectly (de Groot & Steg, 2007).

• Values are therefore likely to be more influential in specific situations.

• Possible to focus attention towards them to increase their influence.

• An effective method: emphasise the values central to the self (thus eliciting self-focus and reflection (Verplanken & Hollan, 2002).

• Another: Promote value congruent actions by providing cognitive support for them – enables a individual to provide explanations for their values, which increases their salience (Maio & Olson, 1998).

Overall

• Some personality traits and values orient people to consider environmental impact on others.

• They can motivate people to engage in pro-environmental behaviour.

• Those traits and values that prioritize individualism don’t enforce communal behaviors.

• Behaviour remains difficult to predict as ‘valuing’ the environment manifest in many different ways.

• Practitioners can draw on these theories to better tailor interventions.

• Proshansky et al. (1979): Initial focus on the physical environment.

• Stokols & Altman (1987): Expanded exploration of the interrelationship between people and their socio-physical environment.

• Hodson (2017): Described climate change as a considerable threat to life on Earth influenced by human activity.

• Maibach, Myers, & Leiserowitz (2014): Expressed urgency in limiting climate change to secure the quality of life on Earth.

• Chan (2018): Investigated risk perception related to climate change.

• Loy & Spence (2020): Explored psychological distance in relation to climate change.

• Mancha & Yoder (2015): Examined models of behaviour change in climate action.

• Milfont & Sibley (2012): Studied aspect of personality and its influence on pro-environmental behavior.

• Soutter et al. (2020): Found openness to experience as the biggest predictor of pro-environmental behavior.

• Huang et al. (2019): Showed that dark triad personality traits negatively correlate with pro-environmental behavior.

• Kesenheimer & Greimeyer: Discussed positive correlation of light personality traits with pro-environmental behavior.

• Schwartz (1992): Defined values as guiding principles for behaviour and their role in environmental behaviour.

• Olander (2006): Documented the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours.

• Messick & McClintock (1968): Originated social dilemma research, exploring social value orientations.

• Liebrand (1984): Developed the decomposed game technique for determining social value orientations.

• Joireman et al. (2001): Found pro-social values positively related to pro-environmental behaviour.

• Schwartz (2012): Proposed a taxonomy of 56 values and identified 10 motivational types.