The Differential Psychology of Environmental Protection/Exploitation

Abstract

Differential psychology focuses on how people vary in the way they think, feel and act by measuring differences that distinguish individuals as more similar to themselves over time and across situations than others. In this article I review and discuss available evidence on key individual differences associated with protection and exploitation of the natural environment. The discussion centers on personality traits, basic human values, time perspective and system-justifying ideological orientations. Greater environmental protection has been shown to be consistently related to higher levels of Openness to Experience and Agreeableness traits (and somewhat Honesty-Humility), Self-Transcendence and Openness to Change values, and future thinking. In contrast, greater environmental exploitation is consistently related to higher levels of conservative political orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). Research examining individual differences provides useful theoretical information that can have applied benefits in designing communication strategies to bring individuals less prone to protect the natural environment on board. Issues with jangle fallacy (measures with different names might not necessarily assess different things) and direction for future research are also discussed.

Examining relations between left-wing authoritarianism and environmentalism

“…A growing literature has documented key psychological variables underpinning one's proneness to protect or exploit the natural environment (for reviews, see Gifford & Nilsson, 2014;Milfont, 2021). The present article contributes to this work by showing that authoritarianism is consequential not only for understanding human-human relations, but also human-nature relations (Milfont et al, 2013;Schultz & Stone, 1994).…”

Toward a comprehensive dimensional model of sustainable behaviors

“…Personality traits are reliably correlated with SBs (Bamberg & Möser, 2007;Brick & Lewis, 2016;Hines et al, 1987;Hopwood et al, 2021;Markowitz et al, 2012;Milfont, 2021;Nielsen, 2017). Soutter et al (2020) meta-analytically synthesized this literature.…”

Evolução dos registros de aves silvestres, na cidade de Teixeira de Freitas-BA Uma análise sobre atitudes pró-ambientais voluntárias

“…Ainda mais, a ação não só como a de não aprisionar aves e preferir observalas livres, mas até ter o trabalho de registra-las em uma plataforma virtual, colaborando com um conhecimento coletivo relevante para a conservação ambiental. Psicologicamente, atribui-se valores humanos como facilitadores na promoção de comportamentos em prol do ambiente, entre eles: níveis mais altos de traços de abertura à experiência e amabilidade (e um pouco de honestidade-humildade), valores de autotranscedência, abertura à mudança e pensamento futuro(MILFONT, 2021; BARBOSA e ROBAINA, 2022).…”