RESPONSIBILITY AS A PREDICTOR OF ECOLOGICAL BEHAVIOUR

doi:10.1006/jevp.1998.9123

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Volume 19, Issue 3, September 1999, Pages 243-253

https://doi.org/10.1006/jevp.1998.9123 Get rights and content

Abstract

How responsible a person feels for the environment is a promising predictor of that person's ecological behaviour. One difficulty of using responsibility feelings as a predictor is that people can feel either morally or conventionally responsible. Moral responsibility feelings depend on a person's self-ascribed responsibility (i.e. a deliberate responsibility judgement) and guilt feelings. Conventional responsibility feelings depend on the social expectations a person is aware of and his or her readiness to fulfill these expectations. In a survey study of 445 members of two Swiss transportation associations, the relative influence of these distinguishable responsibility concepts on ecological behaviour was assessed.

Structural equation analyses revealed that people apparently feel morally responsible rather than conventionally responsible for the environment. Guilt feelings explain 44 per cent of the variance of these responsibility feelings, which, in turn, explain 45 per cent of the variance of a person's deliberately made responsibility judgement, which, in turn, predicts 55 per cent of the variance of a person's ecological behaviour. These results suggest that if people feel guilty for what they do or fail to do, they also feel morally responsible for the environment. This promotes their self-ascription of responsibility and it is this judgement that predicts a considerable portion of a person's ecological behaviour.

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Regular ArticleRESPONSIBILITY AS A PREDICTOR OF ECOLOGICAL BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Developmental Review

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Untersuchungen zur Validität einer neuen Lügen-Skala [Validity studies of a new Lying Scale]

Diagnostica

The roles of attitudinal and personality variables in the prediction of environmental behavior and knowledge

Environment and Behavior

On the phylogeny of human morality

Zur Phylogenese menschlicher Motivation [The phylogenesis of human motivation]

The new environmental paradigm: a proposed instrument and preliminary results

Journal of Environmental Education

Sozialpsychologisch fundierter Theorierahman für eine Umweltbewusstseinsforschung [Social psychological framework for research on environmental concern]

Psychologische Rundschau

Von den sozialen Grundlagen des Umweltbewusstseins zum verantwortlichen Umwelthandeln: Die sozialpsychologische Dimension der Umweltproblematik [From the social basis of environmental concern to responsible ecological action: the social–psychological dimension of environmental problems]

Evaluating energy conservation programs: is verbal report enough?

Journal of Consumer Research

Characterizing participants in activities protecting the environment: a focus on donating, recycling, and conservation behaviors

Journal of Public Policy and Marketing

Influences on attitude–behavior relationships: a natural experiment with curbside recycling

Environment and Behavior

Environmental concern and environmental behavior in Foley, a small town in Minnesota

Environment and Behavior

Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behavior: a meta-analysis

Journal of Environmental Education

Recycling as altruistic behavior: normative and behavioral strategies to expand participation in a community program

Environment and Behavior

Along the Rio Negro: Brazilian children's environmental views and values

Developmental Psychology

LISREL8: Structural Equation Modeling with the SIMPLIS Command Language

Environmental views and values of children in an inner-city black community

Child Development

Zur Sozialpsychologie des Verant wortlichkeitserlebens: Drei Konzepte mit gesellschaftlichen Folgen [The social psychology of responsibility feelings: three concepts and some consequences for societies]

Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie

A general measure of ecological behaviour

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Ökologisch relevante Verbotsforderungen, Engagement- und Verzichtsbereitschaften am Beispiel der Luftqualität [Ecologically relevant acceptances of governmental prohibitions and readiness to adopt behaviours related to pollution]

Verantwortliches Umweltverhalten: Umweltschützende Entscheidungen erklären und fördern [Responsible ecological behaviour: predicting and promoting conservation decisions]

Umweltschutz und die Verantwortung der Bürger [Pollution control and the responsibility of citizens]

Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie

Regular Article
RESPONSIBILITY AS A PREDICTOR OF ECOLOGICAL BEHAVIOUR