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Cultural Variability in the Link Between Environmental Concern and Support for Environmental Action
Kimin Eom1, Heejung S Kim1, David K Sherman1
11 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Psychological Science
|August 28, 2016
Summary
Cultural values significantly impact sustainability behaviors. Environmental concern drives action in individualistic cultures, while social norms are key in collectivistic ones, highlighting the need for tailored approaches to promote proenvironmental action globally.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Psychology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Sustainability Science
Background:
- Sustainability research often assumes environmental concern directly leads to proenvironmental action.
- This assumption's cultural applicability, particularly across individualistic and collectivistic societies, remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how cultural dimensions, specifically individualism and collectivism, moderate the relationship between environmental concern and proenvironmental action.
- To identify culture-specific psychological predictors of sustainability behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Cross-national analysis of 47 countries (N=57,268) examining the predictive power of environmental concern on proenvironmental action, with national-level individualism as a key variable.
- Study 2: Comparative study of participants from individualistic (United States) and collectivistic (Japan) nations (N=251) to identify culture-specific drivers of proenvironmental behavior.
Main Results:
- National-level individualism significantly explained variations in how environmental concern predicts proenvironmental action across countries.
- In individualistic cultures (e.g., European Americans), environmental concern predicted consumer choices. In collectivistic cultures (e.g., Japanese), perceived social norms were stronger predictors of proenvironmental decision-making.
Conclusions:
- The link between environmental concern and proenvironmental action is culturally contingent, not universal.
- Effective global sustainability strategies must consider cultural differences in psychological drivers of behavior, tailoring interventions to specific cultural contexts.
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