Unearthing the “Green” Personality: Core Traits Predict Environmentally Friendly Behavior

Pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors show substantial individual differences, and exploring their predictors can help reveal the origins of pro-environmental behavior. Basic personality traits may provide a partial explanation, but it is unclear which personality traits are reliably associated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environment and behavior 2016-06, Vol.48 (5), p.635-658
Main Authors: Brick, Cameron, Lewis, Gary J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Attitudes
Conscientiousness
Demographics
Demography
Emissions
Emissions control
Environmental attitudes
Environmental behaviour
Ethnicity
Etiology
Extraversion
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Individual differences
Minority & ethnic groups
Openness
Personality
Personality tests
Personality traits
Political attitudes
Self report
United States
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Summary:Pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors show substantial individual differences, and exploring their predictors can help reveal the origins of pro-environmental behavior. Basic personality traits may provide a partial explanation, but it is unclear which personality traits are reliably associated with pro-environmental behaviors. This article uses a specific type of environmental behavior, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to clarify which personality correlates are most robustly associated with behavior, and to test mediation of those effects through attitudes. A large (N = 345) sample of United States adults representative in age, gender, and ethnicity completed the 100-item HEXACO personality inventory, a novel self-report measure of behaviors that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and scales of environmental and political attitudes. Accounting for demographics, emissions-reducing behaviors were most strongly predicted by Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion, and these effects of personality were mediated by attitudes toward the natural environment. These observations broaden the understanding of the etiology of environmental attitudes and behavior.
ISSN:0013-9165
1552-390X
DOI:10.1177/0013916514554695