Environmental concern and behaviour in an Australian sample within an ecocentric – anthropocentric framework

Abstract

Two hundred and ninety-two participants from 126 urban and rural locations across Australia responded to a questionnaire assessing levels of environmental concern and behaviour. The environmental concern items consisted of the Thompson and Barton ecocentric, anthropocentric, and apathy scales, together with the items in the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) revised scale. The broad picture in terms of sociodemographic variables was that female gender, better education, and being older were associated with higher levels of ecocentric concern for the environment and reporting more ecological behaviours. In regard to concern measures, reported frequency of environmental behaviours was positively associated with levels of ecocentric concern and endorsement of the NEP scale, and negatively associated with levels of anthropocentric concern and apathy. A combination of scores on the Thompson and Barton scales and demographic variables accounted for 36% of the variability in reported ecological behaviours.

Environmental attitude, motivations and values for marine biodiversity protection

“…The correlation between pro-environmental values and high NEP scores is evident in previous studies (Scott and Willits 1994;Tarrant and Cordell 1997;Ebreo et al 1999;Kaltenborn and Bjerke 2002;Rauwald and Moore 2002;Hunter and Rinner 2004;Berenguer et al 2005;Casey and Scott 2006;Kaltenborn et al 2008;Luo and Deng 2008;Ardahan 2012).…”

“…According to the empirical results of various studies, NEP scale measures pro-environmental beliefs in relation to behavioral intentions, and real pro-environmental behaviors (Scott and Willits 1994;Tarrant and Cordell 1997;Ebreo et al 1999;Rauwald and Moore 2002;Casey and Scott 2006). insist that NEP scale results are associated with beliefs, norms, intentions, and behaviors towards the natural environment.…”

Attitudes towards Fairtrade Principles and Environmental Views among the Inhabitants of a Rural Swedish Town

“…Other studies have found substantial positive correlations at .20 or more (Bjerke & Kaltenborn, 1999;Kaltenborn & Bjerke, 2002;Schultz & Zelezny, 1999). Some studies have found that women have more positive attitudes towards ecocentrism than men (Casey & Scott, 2006;Karpiak & Baril, 2008).…”

Contribution of an Environmental Documentary Movie on the Development of Pre-Service Teachers' Environmental Attitudes

“…However, after the project increasing the attitude levels, there was no significant difference among the groups' attitude levels. It has been shown that demographic variables such as gender and age did not have an impact on the average attitude levels in most of the researches conducted before (Aytaç&Öngen, 2012;Casey and Scott, 2006;Sam et al, 2010;Shephard et al, 2009;Weber, 2011). This study, as well, proved that demographic variables did not influence participants' attitudes towards the environment before or after the documentary movie activity.…”

“…However, age, gender and educational concerns (such as education type and level, scientific knowledge) have been the most studied variables predicting people's environmental concern. Yet, the research results indicate inconsistency in respect to these three socio-demographic variables (Aytaç&Öngen, 2012;Casey and Scott, 2006;Dunlap et al, 2000;Sam et al, 2010;Shephard et al 2009;Weber, 2011). Many other socio-demographic variables were also considered to be influential on attitudes such as academic major, country, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political tendencies, etc.…”