News
The supportive role of environmental attitude for learning about environmental issues
New publication!
Baierl, T-M., Kaiser, F. G., & Bogner, F. X. (2022). The supportive role of environmental attitude for learning about environmental issues. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101799.
Free access to the article (until May 22, 2022): https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1erTKzzKDEWCz
Also available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101799
Abstract
People’s commitment to environmental preservation (i.e., environmental attitude) appears to be critical for manifest engagement. Correspondingly, it seems advisable that environmental scientists, educators, and policy-makers also pay heed to environmental attitude’s role in learning, another form of manifest behavior. In our research, we tested the hypothesis that people with stronger environmental attitudes learn comparatively more about environmental issues than people with weaker such attitudes. In a sample of 1,896 students (M = 14.2, SD = 1.8), we identified people’s environmental attitudes in their verbal expressions of support for preserving the environment and their self-reports of past behavior aimed at preserving the environment. We corroborated our hypothesis and found that people’s preexisting environmental attitudes supported their acquisition of new knowledge. We also corroborated the characteristic developmental trajectory of adolescents’ environmental attitudes with an early maximum at around age 11 or 12, a minimum at around age 16, and a subsequent recovery.
Keywords: knowledge level; environmental education; environmental attitudes; attitude measurement; Campbell paradigm
Highlights
Podcast episode "The Real Psychology of Why We Make Environmental Changes"
In the newest episode of Katie Patrick's podcast "How to Save the World" titled "The Real Psychology of Why We Make Environmental Changes" Prof. Florian Kaiser talks about sustainable behavior, environmental attitude, and behavioral costs. Here you can find more information about the episode.
Video: "Protecting the environment for its own sake against all odds" (Keynote address at the ICEP 2021)
Prof. Kaiser's invited keynote address titeled Protecting the environment for its own sake against all odds. at the 3rd International Conference on Environmental Psychology (Siracusa, Italy, October 6th 2021) is now available to watch online. Have a look and let us know what you think!
Invitation: Interdisciplinary Conference on Carbon Pricing
In our project Carbon pricing we offer interdisciplinary workshops & discussions about CO2 taxing (and the use of it's revenue)!
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When? 21st / 22nd September, 10-16h
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Where? online
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Language? mostly in German
More information & registration: https://bit.ly/3kIc8H1
Offsetting behavioral costs with personal attitude: A slightly more complex view of the attitude-behavior relation
New publication!
Kaiser, F. G., Kibbe, A. & Hentschke, L. (2021). Offsetting behavioral costs with personal attitude: A slightly more complex view of the attitude-behavior relation. Personality and Individual Differences, 183, 111158.
Available free of charge for the next 50 days: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1dUlWheKdmtb1
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111158
Abstract:
In this research, we propose that the notorious attitude-behavior gap—the notion that people profess attitudes without taking real actions—might also stem from ignoring the fact that manifest behavior typically involves costs (i.e., personal resources such as time, money, exertion). In two quasi-field experiments with convenience samples (N1 = 396; N2 = 252), we demonstrate that the people who performed increasingly costly behavior professed progressively stronger attitudes. Our findings suggest that the costs that obstruct behavior must be offset by attitudes before behavior can manifest itself. Thus, there is a need to stop confusing weak attitude-behavior correlations with the behavioral irrelevance of attitudes. To avoid underestimating the importance of people's attitudes concerning environmental protection, the strength of attitudes relative to the associated behavioral costs must be considered.
Highlights:
• A too simplistic view of the attitude-behavior relation makes it appear inconsistent.
• Attitudes reflect the occurrence probabilities of attitude-relevant behavior.
• Progressively stronger attitudes compensate for increasingly costly behavior.
• Surmounted behavioral costs coincide with the strength of environmental attitudes.
• Undemanding opinions must not be confused with behavior-relevant attitudes.