News

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

• Environmental attitude reveals people's commitment to environmental preservation.

• Commitment to environmental preservation is measurable within the Campbell paradigm.

• People's environmental attitudes develop characteristically throughout adolescence.

• The early maximum at 11/12 drops to a minimum at 16 followed by some recovery.

• People's environmental attitudes are critical for acquiring new and more knowledge. 

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.

Prof. Kaiser's invited keynote address titeled Protecting the environment for its own sake against all odds. at the 3^rd 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!

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.