Factors Affecting Pro-Environmental Attitudes

Using data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (2005-2008), this study examined the relationship between affluence, post-materialist values, and pro-environmental attitudes from individuals from Morocco, Uruguay, Sweden, and the United States. Demographic variables were also analyzed to determine which factors were the best predictors of pro-environmental attitudes from each of the four countries. A three step regression procedure was used to test the PostMaterialist Value Theory: (A) if an individual’s affluence is a significant predictor of their proenvironmental attitudes, (B) if post-materialist values are significant predictors of their proenvironmental attitudes, and (C) whether or not affluence continues to be a significant predictor of their pro-environmental attitudes when simultaneously regressed with post-materialist values. Results demonstrate that affluence is not always a significant predictor of pro-environmental attitudes, and the relationship between affluence and pro-environmental attitudes was not mediated by post-materialist values for individuals from any of the four countries. Also, none of the demographic variables were found to be consistently significant for all four country samples. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that environmentalism cannot be completely explained by a cultural value shift from materialist to post-materialist, and it appears that proenvironmental attitudes emerge from multiple facets that vary by the society under examination.