IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v9y2019i2d10.1007_s13412-019-00541-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ideas to action: environmental beliefs, behaviors, and support for environmental policies

Author

Listed:
  • Chenyang Xiao

    (American University)

  • Jan Buhrmann

    (Illinois College)

Abstract

This study uses data from two independent surveys of three communities in Colorado and Wyoming in 1997 and 2012 and examines how environmental attitudes and beliefs (as measured by the New Environmental Paradigm Scale) are related to support for a range of environmental policies and self-reported environmental actions. Results of structural equation modeling show that policy support mediates the influences of the NEP on environmental action, compatible with the value-belief-norm theory. In addition, this study finds a weaker relationship between policy support and environmental action in 2012 than 1997, indicating that environmental beliefs play an increasingly weaker role over time in the decision of individuals to engage in environmental actions. Community comparisons suggest that recycling infrastructure may be a significant facilitator for environmental actions.

Suggested Citation

  • Chenyang Xiao & Jan Buhrmann, 2019. "Ideas to action: environmental beliefs, behaviors, and support for environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(2), pages 196-205, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:9:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-019-00541-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-019-00541-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-019-00541-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-019-00541-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xu Xu & Kevin Sylwester, 2016. "Environmental Quality and International Migration," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 157-180, February.
    2. W. Kip Viscusi & Joel Huber & Jason Bell, 2011. "Promoting Recycling: Private Values, Social Norms, and Economic Incentives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 65-70, May.
    3. Sverker C. Jagers & Johan Martinsson & Simon Matti, 2016. "The Environmental Psychology of the Ecological Citizen: Comparing Competing Models of Pro-Environmental Behavior," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1005-1022, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Audronė Minelgaitė & Genovaitė Liobikienė, 2021. "Changes in pro-environmental behaviour and its determinants during long-term period in a transition country as Lithuania," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16083-16099, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schnellenbach, Jan, 2012. "Nudges and norms: On the political economy of soft paternalism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 266-277.
    2. Anthony Amoah & Thomas Addoah, 2021. "Does environmental knowledge drive pro-environmental behaviour in developing countries? Evidence from households in Ghana," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 2719-2738, February.
    3. Rinaldo Brau & Marco Nieddu & S. Balia, 2021. "Depowering Risk: Vehicle Power Restriction and Teen Driver Accidents in Italy," Working Paper CRENoS 202101, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    4. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Hassan F. Gholipour & Mostafa Javadian, 2023. "Air pollution and internal migration: evidence from an Iranian household survey," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 223-247, January.
    5. Cecere, Grazia & Mancinelli, Susanna & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2014. "Waste prevention and social preferences: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 163-176.
    6. repec:rdg:wpaper:em-dp2012-03 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Anna Kremel, 2024. "Consumer Behaviour in a Circular System – How Values Promote and Hinder the Participation of Young Adults in the Swedish Deposit-Refund System for Beverage Packaging," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 1427-1446, June.
    8. Tobias Erhardt, 2019. "Garbage In and Garbage Out? On Waste Havens in Switzerland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(1), pages 251-282, May.
    9. Tang, Yanyan & Zhang, Qi & Li, Yaoming & Li, Hailong & Pan, Xunzhang & Mclellan, Benjamin, 2019. "The social-economic-environmental impacts of recycling retired EV batteries under reward-penalty mechanism," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Guy Meunier & Ingmar Schumacher, 2020. "The importance of considering optimal government policy when social norms matter for the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 630-655, June.
    11. Viscusi, W. Kip & Huber, Joel & Bell, Jason, 2023. "Changes in household recycling behavior: Evidence from panel data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    12. Briguglio, Marie & Delaney, Liam & Wood, Alex, 2018. "Partisanship, priming and participation in public-good schemes," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 136-150.
    13. W. J. Wouter Botzen & Howard Kunreuther & Jeffrey Czajkowski & Hans de Moel, 2019. "Adoption of Individual Flood Damage Mitigation Measures in New York City: An Extension of Protection Motivation Theory," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(10), pages 2143-2159, October.
    14. Sebastian Bradford & Reto Rupf & Matthias Stucki, 2021. "Climbing Ropes—Environmental Hotspots in Their Life Cycle and Potentials for Optimization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    15. Kendel, Adnane & Lazaric, Nathalie & Maréchal, Kevin, 2017. "What do people ‘learn by looking’ at direct feedback on their energy consumption? Results of a field study in Southern France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 593-605.
    16. Junpeng Li & Puneet Vatsa & Wanglin Ma, 2023. "Small Acts With Big Impacts: Does Garbage Classification Improve Subjective Well-Being in Rural China?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 1337-1363, June.
    17. Agnès Festré & Pierre Garrouste & Ankinée Kirakozian & Mira Toumi, 2017. "The Pen Might Be Mightier than the Sword: How Third-party Advice or Sanction Impacts on Pro-environmental Behavior," GREDEG Working Papers 2017-15, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France, revised Aug 2017.
    18. Guoyao Yan & Yu Hao & Yunxia Guo & Haitao Wu, 2022. "Are environmental problems a barometer of corruption in the eyes of residents? Evidence from China," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 337-361, May.
    19. Hu, Zhigao & Zhang, Yan & Cao, Jianhua & Zhou, Ke, 2022. "Longing for the Blue Sky: Urban air quality and the individual decision to immigrate," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Grebitus, Carola & Steiner, Bodo & Veeman, Michele, 2015. "The roles of human values and generalized trust on stated preferences when food is labeled with environmental footprints: Insights from Germany," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 84-91.
    21. Louise R. Manfredi & Meriel Stokoe & Rebecca Kelly & Seyeon Lee, 2021. "Teaching Sustainable Responsibility through Informal Undergraduate Design Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-13, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:9:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-019-00541-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.