Cultural Variability in the Link Between Environmental Concern and Support for Environmental Action

Research on sustainability behaviors has been based on the assumption that increasing personal concerns about the environment will increase proenvironmental action. We tested whether this assumption is more applicable to individualistic cultures than to collectivistic cultures. In Study 1, we compar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2016-10, Vol.27 (10), p.1331-1339
Main Authors: Eom, Kimin, Kim, Heejung S., Sherman, David K., Ishii, Keiko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action research
Adolescent
Behavior
Climate Change
Collectivism
Comparative studies
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Cultural values
Culture
Decision making
Decision Making - physiology
Environment
Environmental attitudes
Environmental behaviour
Environmental protection
European Continental Ancestry Group
Female
Humans
Individualism
Individuality
Japan
Male
Psychological aspects
Social Values
Sociocultural factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sustainability
United States
Variability
Young Adult
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Summary:Research on sustainability behaviors has been based on the assumption that increasing personal concerns about the environment will increase proenvironmental action. We tested whether this assumption is more applicable to individualistic cultures than to collectivistic cultures. In Study 1, we compared 47 countries (N = 57,268) and found that they varied considerably in the degree to which environmental concern predicted support for proenvironmental action. National-level individualism explained the between-nation variability above and beyond the effects of other cultural values and independently of person-level individualism. In Study 2, we compared individualistic and collectivistic nations (United States vs. Japan; N = 251) and found culture-specific predictors of proenvironmental behavior. Environmental concern predicted environmentally friendly consumer choice among European Americans but not Japanese. For Japanese participants, perceived norms about environmental behavior predicted proenvironmental decision making. Facilitating sustainability across nations requires an understanding of how culture determines which psychological factors drive human action.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797616660078