Global ChangeIntersection of Nature and Culture

Can environmentally friendly behavior change with social context?

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

How might common pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., recycling, use of public transport, buying organic food, water conservation) we see in everyday life speak to how they are formed or encouraged?

In a recent study^1,2 from Environment and Behavior (subscription required), the authors noted that most studies of environmental behavior have historically analyzed pro-environmental behaviors  as an outcome of various causal attributes of individuals (e.g., political ideology, values, attitudes, and lifestyles).

What’s lacking, these authors argue, is an evaluation of the social context in which these pro-environmental behaviors take place and whether this context also plays a role.  For example, some social incentives for encouraging public transportation use (such as free tickets, low costs, effective public transportation planning, convenience, or public acceptance) can make a person much more likely to use public transportation in one city (e.g., New York) relative to another (e.g., Atlanta).

Thus, this team sought to identify the extent to which environmentally friendly behavior is heterogeneous between individuals and whether people engage in different environmentally friendly behaviors in different social contexts.    They used a survey to assess 20 behaviors as a function of attitudes, political orientation, and sociodemographic information. To evaluate social context, they examined how responses varied between home or while on vacation.

What did they find?

(more…)

Tags: behavior individuals society
Posted in behavior, social science | No Comments »