Beliefs and Social Norms as Precursors of Environmental Support: The Joint Influence of Collectivism and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

The present research investigates how the cultural value of collectivism interacts with socioeconomic status (SES) to influence the basis of action. Using a U.S. national sample ( N = 2,538), the research examines how these sociocultural factors jointly moderate the strength of two precursors of environmental support: beliefs about climate change and perceived descriptive norms. SES and collectivism interacted with climate change beliefs such that beliefs predicted environmental support (i.e., proenvironmental behaviors and policy support) more strongly for those who were high in SES and low in collectivism than for all other groups. This interaction was explained, in part, by sense of control. For descriptive norms, SES and collectivism did not interact but rather norms predicted action most strongly for those high in collectivism and high in SES. These findings demonstrate the theoretical and applied importance of examining multiple sociocultural characteristics together to understand the factors that drive action.

Individual costs and community benefits: Collectivism and individuals’ compliance with public health interventions

“…Specifically, those high on collectivism perceived that a greater proportion of people in their local community complied with NPIs than those low on collectivism, and in turn, they were more likely to comply themselves. We also tested a viable alternative model whereby collectivism made people more attuned to the social norms, whether they are high or low by testing collectivism as a moderator of the relationship between social norms and compliance [ 10 , 15 ]. There was no significant interaction between collectivism and perceived social norms on compliance behaviors, suggesting that perhaps collectivistic individuals comply not because of the contextual forces around them (i.e., strong norms in the environment), but rather, because of their own perception of what other people might do (i.e., intersubjective norms; see 55 for more discussion).…”

“…In the present study, we investigated the role of the cultural dimension of collectivism, controlling for individualism. Individualistic and collectivistic value orientations have been shown to have distinct effects on behavioral outcomes [ 11 ], and prior work has shown that collectivistic-values orientation is a stronger predictor of responses to collective threats such as climate change [ 15 ] and contagious diseases [ 12 , 16 ] than individualistic-values orientation. For example, in the face of Ebola, for people who were at high levels of perceived disease vulnerability, collectivism was associated with reduced xenophobic policy support, possibly because they perceived greater protection from their community against pathogen threat, whereas individualism was not associated with xenophobic policy support [ 12 , 13 ].…”

“…For example, in the face of Ebola, for people who were at high levels of perceived disease vulnerability, collectivism was associated with reduced xenophobic policy support, possibly because they perceived greater protection from their community against pathogen threat, whereas individualism was not associated with xenophobic policy support [ 12 , 13 ]. In addition, collectivistic values orientation (but not individualistic values orientation) interacted with beliefs about climate change to predict climate action [ 15 ]. Not only is collectivistic values orientation a stronger predictor of response to collective threats, but people respond to collective threats by endorsing collectivistic values [ 7 , 16 ].…”

“…The first path assumed that perceived social norms can serve as a mediator, such that more collectivistic individuals will report greater perceived proportion of people who complied with public health behaviors, and in turn, greater perceived social norms will predict greater compliance with the targeted health behavior. The second path, through conformity, assumed that collectivism may strengthen the relationship between perceived social norms and compliance, treating collectivism as a moderator [ 10 , 15 ]. Therefore, in the present study, we conducted both mediation and moderation analyses to parse the influence of perceived social norms on compliance as a function of collectivism.…”

Psychology and the Threat of Contagion: Feeling Vulnerable to a Disease Moderates the Link Between Xenophobic Thoughts and Support for Ingroup-Protective Actions

“…In addition, sociocultural factors impact the link, such as individualism/collectivism and socioeconomic status (SES). For example, more collectivistic and lower SES people show weaker links between their beliefs about environmental crises and their willingness to support pro-environmental actions, compared to their less collectivistic and higher SES counterparts (Eom et al, 2016(Eom et al, , 2018Sherman et al, 2021). Little extant research has investigated the role of perceived vulnerability to exogenous diseases in moderating the link between people's thoughts and support for actions.…”