Socio-structural and psychological foundations of climate change beliefs

New Zealand Journal of Psychology

Volumn 44, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 17-30

  Milfont, Taciano L ^a   Milojev, Petar ^b   Greaves, Lara M ^b   Sibley, Chris G ^b  

^a VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON   (New Zealand)

^b UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

Beliefs; Climate change; Demographics; Latent profile analysis; Personality; Values

Indexed keywords

EID: 84948759804     PISSN: 0112109X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. Aitken, C., Chapman, R., & McClure, J. (2011). Climate change, powerlessness and the commons dilemma: Assessing New Zealanders' preparedness to act. Global Environmental Change, 21, 752-760.
2. Arcury, T. A., and Scollay, S. J., & Johnson, T. P. (1987). Sex differences in environmental concern and knowledge: The case of acid rain. Sex Roles, 16, 463-472.
3. Arnocky, S., Dupuis, D., & Stroink, M. L. (2012). Environmental concern and fertility intentions among Canadian university students Population and Environment, 34, 279-292.
4. Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007). Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and social Psychology Review, 11, 150-166.
5. Bain, P. G., and Hornsey, M. J., Bongiorno, R., & Jeffries, C. (2012). Promoting pro-environmental action in climate change deniers. Nature Climate Change, 2, 600-6003.
6. Bamberg, S., & Möser, G. (2007). Twenty years after Hines, Hungerford, and Tomera: A new meta-analysis of psychosocial determinants of pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 27, 14-25.
7. Barnes, A. P., & Toma, L. (2012). A typology of dairy farmer perceptions towards climate change. Climatic Change, 112, 507-522.
8. Boer, D., & Fischer, R. (2013). How and when do personal values guide our attitudes and sociality? Explaining cross-cultural variability in attitude-value linkages. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 1113-1147.
9. Bonnes, M., Lee, T., & Bonaiuto, m. (2003). Psychological theories for environmental issues. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
10. Borden, R. J., & Francis, J. L. (1978). Who cares about ecology? Personality and sex differences in environmental concern. Journal of Personality, 46, 190-203.
11. Bulbulia, J., Troughton, G., Greaves, L., Milfont, T. L., & Sibley, C. G. (in press). To burn or to save? The opposing functions of reading scripture on environmental intentions. Religion, Brain and Behavior.
12. Buttel, F. H. (1987). Environmental sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 465-488.
13. Buttel, F. H., & Flinn, W. L. (1978). The politics of environmental concern: The impacts of party identification and political ideology on environmental attitudes. Environment and Behavior, 10, 17-36.
14. Clayton, S. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15. Coelho, J. A. P. M., Gouveia, V. V., & Milfont, T. L. (2006). Valores humanos como explicadores de atitudes ambientais e intenção de comportamento próambiental [Human values as predictors of environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior]. Psicologia em Estudo, 11, 199-207.
16. Crompton, T. (2008). Weathercocks & signposts: The environment movement at a crossroads. London: WWF-UK. Retrieved May 17, 2008, from http://wwf.org.uk/strategiesforchange.
17. Dietz, T., Kalof, L., & Stern, P. C. (2002). Gender, values, and environmentalism. Social Science Quarterly, 83, 353-364.
18. Diniz, P., Fischer, R., Milfont, T. L., & McClure, J. (2012, September). Do values explain environmental engagement? A metaanalytical review of cross-cultural data. Paper presented at the 21st International Organization of Cross-cultural Psychology Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
19. Donewall, H., & Rudnev, M. (2014). Common and unique features of Schwartz's and Inglehart's value theories at the country and individual levels. Cross-Cultural Research, 48, 45-77
20. Dunlap, R. E. (1998). Lay perceptions of global risk: Public views of global warming in crossnational context. International Sociology, 13, 473-498.
21. Dunlap, R. E., and Grieneeks, J. K., & Rokeach, M. (1983). Human values and proenvironmental behavior. In W. D. Conn (Ed.), Energy and material resources: Attitudes, values, and public policy. Boulder, CO: Westview.
22. Dupont, D. P. (2004). Do children matter? An examination of gender differences in environmental valuation. Ecological Economics, 49, 273-286.
23. Eurobarometer. (2009). Europeans' attitudes towards climate change (Special Eurobarometer 313, European Parliament and European Commission).: Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/public-opinion/archives/ebs/ebs-313-en.pdf. Accessed on March 29, 2011.
24. Evans, L., and Milfont, T. L., & Lawrence, J. (2014). Considering local adaptation increases willingness to mitigate. Global Environmental Change, 25, 69-75.
25. Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2013). The moral roots of environmental attitudes. Psychological Science, 24, 56-62.
26. Feygina, I., and Jost, J. T., & Goldsmith, R. E. (2010). System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of "system-sanctioned change". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 326-338.
27. Fransson, N., & Gärling, T. (1999). Environmental concern: Conceptual definitions, measurement methods, and research findings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19, 369-382.
28. Gardner, G. T., & Stern, P. C. (2002). Environmental problems and human behavior (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing.
29. Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative "description of personality": The big five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1216-1229.
30. Hamilton, L. (1985). Concern about toxic wastes: Three demographic predictors. Sociological Perspectives, 28, 463-468.
31. Heath, Y., & Gifford, R. (2006). Free-market ideology and environmental degradation: The case of beliefs in global climate change. Environment and Behavior, 38, 48-71.
32. Heather, B. (2013, December 11). Census points to non-religious NZ. Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9501270/Census-points-to-non-religious-NZ
33. Heberlein, T. A. (1977). Norm activation and environmental action. Journal of Social Issues, 33, 79-87.
34. Hines, J. M., and Hungerford, H. R., & Tomera, A. N. (1987). Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behavior: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Education, 18, 1-8.
35. Hirsh, J. B. (2010). Personality and environmental concern. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 245-248.
36. Hirsh, J. B., & Dolderman, D. (2007). Personality predictors of consumerism and environmentalism: A preliminary study. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1583-1593. Differences, 43,
37. Horizon Poll. (2012, 10 August). People want more action on climate change. Horizon Poll - Listening to New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.horizonpoll.co.nz/page/244/people-want
38. IPCC. (2014). Summary for policymakers. In C. B. Field, V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K. L. Ebi, Y. O. Estrada, R. C. Genova, B. Girma, E. S. Kissel, A. N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P. R. Mastrandrea & L. L. White (Eds.), Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability (pp. 1-32). Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, N Y, USA: Cambridge University Press.
39. Karp, D. G. (1996). Values and their effect on pro-environmental behavior. Environment and Behavior, 28, 111-133.
40. Kellstedt, P. M., Zahran, S., & Vedlitz, A. (2008). Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change in the United States. Risk Analysis, 28, 113-126.
41. Ki-moon, B. (2009). Opening remarks to the World Business Summit on Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/sg/statements/?nid=3879
42. Kilbourne, W. E., and Beckmann, S. C., & Thelen, E. (2002). The role of the dominant social paradigm in environmental attitudes: A multinational examination. Journal of Business Research, 55, 193-204.
43. Korfiatis, K. J., Hovardas, T., & Pantis, J. D. (2004). Determinants of environmental behavior in societies in transition: Evidence from five European Countries. Population and Environment, 25, 563-584.
44. Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., Feinberg, G., & Howe, P. (2012). Global warming's six Americas, September 2012. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
45. Leiserowitz, A., Thaker, J., Feinberg, G., & Cooper, D. K. (2013). Global warming's six Indias. Yale University. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
46. Maibach, E., Leiserowitz, A., Roser-Renouf, C., & Mertz, C. K. (2011). Identifying like-minded audiences for climate change public engagement campaigns: An audience segmentation analysis and tool development. PLoS ONE, 6, e17571.
47. Malka, A., and Krosnick, J. A., & Langer, G. (2009). The association of knowledge with concern about global warming: Trusted information sources shape public thinking. Risk Analysis, 29, 633-647.
48. Markowitz, E. M., and Goldberg, L. R., Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2012). Profiling the "pro-environmental individual": A personality perspective. Journal of Personality, 80, 81-111.
49. Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The connectedness to nature scale: A measure of individuals feeling in community with nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 503-515.
50. McCrae, R. R., & Allik, J. (2002). The five-factor model of personality across cultures. New York: Kluwer Academic.
51. McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175-215.
52. McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2011a). Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global Environmental Change, 21, 1163-1172.
53. McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2011b). The politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public's views of global warming, 2001-2010. The Sociological Quarterly, 52, 155-194.
54. McFarlane, B. L., & Hunt, L. M. (2006). Environmental activism in the forest sector: Social psychological, social-cultural, and contextual effects. Environment and Behavior, 38, 266-285.
55. Milfont, T. L., & Gouveia, V. V. (2006). Time perspective and values: An exploratory study of their relations to environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 26, 72-82.
56. Milfont, T. L. (2010). Global warming, climate change and human psychology. In V. Corral-Verdugo, C. H. García-Cadena & M. Frías-Armenta (Eds.), Psychological approaches to sustainability: Current trends in theory, research and practice (pp. 19-42). New York: Nova Science.
57. Milfont, T. L. (2012a). The interplay between knowledge, perceived efficacy, and concern about global warming and climate change: A one-year longitudinal study. Risk Analysis, 32, 1003-1020.
58. Milfont, T. L. (2012b). The psychology of environmental attitudes: Conceptual and empirical insights from New Zealand. Ecopsychology, 42, 269-276.
59. Milfont, T. L., Evans, L., Sibley, C. G., Ries, J., & Cunningham, A. (2014). Proximity to coast is linked to climate change belief. PLoS ONE, 9(7), e103180.
60. Milfont, T. L., Harré, N., Sibley, C. G., & Duckitt, J. (2012). The climate-change dilemma: Examining the association between parental status and political party support. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42, 2386-2410.
61. Milfont, T. L., Richter, I., Sibley, C. G., and Wilson, M. S., & Fischer, R. (2013). Environmental consequences of the desire to dominate and be superior. Personality and Social Psychological Bulletin, 39, 1127-1138.
62. Milfont, T. L., & Sibley, C. G. (2011). Exploring the concept of environmental generativity. International Journal of Hispanic Psychology, 4, 21-30.
63. Milfont, T. L., & Sibley, C. G. (2012). The big five personality traits and environmental engagement: Associations at the individual and societal level. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32, 187-195.
64. Milfont, T. L., and Sibley, C. G., & Duckitt, J. (2010). Testing the moderating role of the components of norm activation on the relationship between values and environmental behaviour. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 124-131.
65. New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. (2008). Emissions trading scheme (ETS) research: A summary of quantitative research amongst the general public: Retrieved from: http://nzier.org.nz/sites/nzier.live.egressive.com/files/ETS-TNS-Conversa-08.07.07-1.pdf
66. Nisbet, E. K., and Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2009). The nature relatedness scale: Linking individuals' connection with nature to environmental concern and behavior. Environment and Behavior, 41, 715-740.
67. Nobel Laureates. (2001). The next hundred years. Science, Available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/data/nobel.xhtml.
68. Olofsson, A., & Öhman, S. (2006). General beliefs and environmental concern. Environment and Behavior, 38, 768-790.
69. Pawlik, K. (1991). The psychology of global environmental change: Some basic data and an agenda for cooperative international research. International Journal of Psychology, 26, 547-563.
70. Roccas, S., Savig, L., Schwartz, S. H., & Knafo, A. (2002). The big five personality factors and personal values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 789-801.
71. Salmond, C., Crampton, P., & Atkinson, J. (2007). NZDep2006 index of deprivation. Dunedin, NZ: Department of Public Health, University of Otago.
72. Schultz, P. W. (2001). The structure of environmental concern: Concern for self, other people, and the biosphere. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21, 327-339.
73. Schultz, P. W., and Gouveia, V. V., Cameron, L. D., Tankha, G., Schmuck, P., & Franek, M. (2005). Values and their relationship to environmental concern and conservation behavior. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 457-475.
74. Schultz, P. W., & Zelezny, L. C. (1999). Values as predictors of environmental attitudes: Evidence for consistency across 14 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19, 255-265.
75. Schultz, P. W., and Zelezny, L. C., & Dalrymple, N. J. (2000). A multinational perspective on the relation between Judeo-Christian religious beliefs and attitudes of environmental concern. Environment and Behavior, 32, 576-591.
76. Schwartz, S. H. (1977). Normative influences on altruism. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 221-279). New York: Academic.
77. Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 1-65). New York: Academic Press.
78. Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Are there universal aspects in the structure and contents of human values? Journal of Social Issues, 50, 19-45.
79. Schwartz, S. H. (2005). Robustness and fruitfulness of a theory of universals in individual human values. In A. Tamayo & J. Porto (Eds.), Valores e comportamento nas organizações [Values and behavior in organizations] (pp. 56-95). Petrópolis, Brazil: Vozes.
80. Scoop Media. (2009, May 4). Huge support for extra climate change measures. Scoop Independent News. Retrieved from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0905/S00049/huge-support-forextra-climate-change-measures.htm
81. Sharma, S. (2008). Where do we stand? One Auckland secondary school's journey toward sustainability. Unpublished master's thesis. Auckland, New Zealand: The University of Auckland.
82. Sibley, C. G., & Kurz, T. (2013). A model of climate belief profiles: How much does it matter if people question human causation? Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 13, 245-261.
83. Sibley, C. G., Luyten, N., Purnomo, M., Mobberly, A., and Wootton, L. W., Hammond, M. D.,... Robertson, A. (2011). The Mini-IPIP6: Validation and extension of a short measure of the Big-Six factors of personality in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 40, 142-159.
84. Stern, P. C., & Dietz, T. (1994). The value basis of environmental concern. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 65-84.
85. Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T., Guagnano, G. A., & Kalof, L. (1999). A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Human Ecology Review, 6, 81-97.
86. Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Kalof, L., & Guagnano, G. A. (1995). Values, beliefs, and proenvironmental action: Attitude formation toward emergent attitude objects. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1611-1636.
87. Stern, P. C., and Guagnano, G. A., & Dietz, T. (1998). A brief inventory of values. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 58, 984-1001.
88. Stoll-Kleemann, S., O'Riordan, T., & Jaeger, C. C. (2001). The psychology of denial concerning climate mitigation measures: Evidence from Swiss focus groups. Global Environmental Change, 11, 107-117.
89. Stuart, D. (2009). Survey on public attitudes to climate change and the emissions trading scheme. Wellington: Report for the Greenhouse Policy Coalition. Retrieved from: http://www.gpcnz.co.nz/includes/download.aspx?ID=106201.
90. Swim, J. K., Clayton, S., Doherty, T. J., Gifford, R., and Howard, G. S., Reser, J. P.,... Weber, E. U. (2009). Psychology and global climate change: Addressing a multi-faceted phenomenon and set of challenges. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
91. Swim, J. K., and Stern, P. C., Doherty, T. J., Clayton, S., Reser, J. P., and Weber, E. U.,... Howard, G. S. (2011). Psychology's contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change. American Psychologist, 66, 241-250.
92. The World Bank. (2009). Public attitudes toward climate change: Findings from a multi-country poll. Available at: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/dec09/ClimateChange-Dec09-rpt.pdf. Accessed on April 7, 2011.
93. Theodori, G. L., & Luloff, A. E. (2002). Position on environmental issues and engagement in proenvironmental behaviors. Society and Natural Resources, 15, 471-482.
94. Tognacci, L. N., and Weigel, R. H., Wideen, M. F., & Vernon, D. T. (1972). Environmental quality: How universal is public concern? Environment and Behavior, 4, 73-86.
95. United Nations. (2011). The social dimensions of climate change Discussion paper prepated by the United Nations Task Team on Social Dimensions of Climate Change.
96. Van Liere, K. D., & Dunlap, R. E. (1978). Moral norms and environmental behavior: An application of Schwartz's norm activation model to yard burning. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 8, 174-188.
97. Van Liere, K. D., & Dunlap, R. E. (1980). The social bases of environmental concern: A review of hypotheses, explanations and empirical evidence. Public Opinion Quarterly, 44, 181-197.
98. White, L., Jr. (1967). The historical roots of our ecologic crisis. Science, 155, 1203-1207.
99. Whitmarsh, L. (2011). Scepticism and uncertainty about climate change: Dimensions, determinants and change over time. Global Environmental Change, 21, 690-700.
100. Zelezny, L. C., Chua, P.-P., & Aldrich, C. (2000). Elaborating on gender differences in environmentalism. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 443-457.