Environmental Engagement in a Diverse World: The Relationship Between Environmental Beliefs, Social Norms, and Support for Environmental Action
Addressing global issues such as climate change requires significant support and engagement of citizens with diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. This talk will present findings showing that people with different sociocultural backgrounds support or reject proenvironmental actions for different reasons. We examine factors that influence the relationship and relative importance of personal factors (i.e., personally held environmental beliefs) and social factors (i.e., perceived social norms) as psychological antecedents of support for pro-environmental actions. The talk will examine cultural orientation (individualism-collectivism), socioeconomic status, and religiosity as moderators of the link between environmental beliefs, social norms, and support for environmental action, as well as the interaction between the two factors. Using a range of methods, including analysis of nationally representative survey data, online experiments, and field studies, we found that personal factors predicts support for pro- environmental actions more strongly among people from contexts where independence is emphasized (i.e., individualistic culture, higher social class, lower religiosity) whereas social factors predict support for proenvironmental actions more strongly among people from contexts where social interdependence is emphasized (i.e., collectivistic culture, lower social class, higher religiosity). The talk will also discuss theoretical and pragmatic importance of considering socio-cultural diversity in understanding decision making processes.