Environmental attitudes and contextual stimuli in emerging environmental culture: An empirical study from Russia

• Published in: Sustainable production and consumption 2021-07, Vol.27, p.2075-2089
• Main Author: Valko, Danila
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Environmental culture; Pro-environmental behavior; Psychological attitude; Russia
• ISSN: 2352-5509; 2352-5509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.spc.2021.05.008

Social behavior patterns and individual actions inevitably impact the state of the environment in the world. This impact turns out to be especially critical when the environmental culture is emerging and there are no positive social inducements. Based on a randomized experimental design, this research outlines how some psychological factors such as attitudes and contextual stimuli influence the tendency towards pro-environmental behavior. Four kinds of everyday pro-environmental behavior (recycling, eco-shopping, resource-saving, eco-mobility) were examined with respect to early studies concerning societies with emerging markets. Also, the homogeneity of such pro-environmental behaviors was investigated, as well as their resistance to contextual stimuli of an emotional and rational nature. In addition, we clarified the impact of some socio-demographic and economic variables. The research reveals three main hypotheses resulting in clear indications that pro-environmental behavior is not homogeneous and can be influenced by both emotional and contextual stimuli. Also, people strongly overestimate their own tendency towards pro-environmental behavior despite some external intervention. These research results are based on the conducted online survey completed by 330 participants within various demographic groups in 81 Russian cities with the respondents’ age ranging from 14 to 61. Our research will be able to fill the gap in the studies of pro-environmental behavior in resource-based economies and countries with the emerging environmental culture, as well as outline some directions for managing positive change. We hope it will help to look unprecedentedly at the interaction between consumption and policy to find more sustainable solutions.