Scientists from the Department of Psychology at the Higher School of Economics have found that pro-environmental behavior is influenced not only by social, but also by political factors. Why the free market is not conducive to sustainable consumption
Motivation in studying the issue
According to the study, in recent years, the topic of global climate change and the environment has been on the front pages of major world and Russian media. Ecologists have been urging citizens from all over the world to adhere to rational consumption for many years. Some have heard this call and now they separate the waste at home into fractions, and go to the store with reusable bags. Others do not yet fully understand how they can influence the situation. Then the researchers thought about what factors (determinants) influence the pro-environmental behavior of citizens.
Pro-environmental behavior is the desire to reduce harm to the environment, or to have a beneficial effect on it.
Currently, studies of determinants in our country are few. Psychologists at the National Research University Higher School of Economics decided to close this gap in the data. They analyzed the political, environmental and social determinants of pro-environmental behavior.
Participants and methods of research
The study sample included 412 people. Among them, 219 are women, which is 53,2% of the respondents. The age of the respondents is from 18 to 92 years. Most of the respondents had higher or incomplete higher education.
Citizens from more than 48 settlements of our country Federation participated in the survey. At the same time, the sample was made up of residents of Moscow, the Moscow Region and St. Petersburg. The invitation to participate in the survey was distributed through social networks.
Proenvironmental behavior was measured using the Cameron Brick scale, which was adapted specifically for Russian citizens. Alexandra Ivanova, a postgraduate student at the HSE Department of Psychology, explained why some changes had to be made: “Adaptation of the scale does not mean that we change the types of behavior that were identified by the researcher, but we think that they are not suitable for our country. Adaptation includes wording: how relevant they are for our country. For example, one questionnaire asks: “How often do you see wild animals and birds: jackals, eagles, and so on.” People in our country do not see jackals, and therefore adaptation is needed. Jackals had to be replaced by wolves. Or, for example, in the USA, distances are measured in miles. We can’t ask our country like that, so we’ve adapted miles to kilometers.”
The scale itself included five main groups of behavior:
Respondents were asked to rate how often they perform certain actions on a scale from 1 (almost never) to 5 (always). Sample questions:
- How often do you take reusable shopping bags with you to the store?
- How often do you walk, bike, car share or use public transportation instead of driving alone?
- In everyday life, how often do you put leftover food in compost (for fertilizer, recycling)?
- How often do you consume food from your garden (during the growing season)?
- How often do you sort trash for recycling when there are other people around you?
- How often do you discuss environmental topics in a personal conversation or on social media?
- How often do you participate in environmental campaigns?
- How often do you educate yourself on environmental topics?
- When you shop for clothes, how often do you choose sustainable brands?
The answers to these questions helped psychologists to consider the relationship of pro-environmental behavior with personal and political values, environmental attitudes, motivation, and other variables.
Results of the study
After analyzing the data obtained, psychologists made a number of conclusions:
- Women buy sustainable products more than men.
- Behavior is influenced by education. The higher its level, the greater the share of purchases of environmental goods.
- People with higher earnings allowed themselves to choose less sustainable options. For example, travel by plane instead of by train. Or they bought avocados instead of locally produced vegetables.
- Residents of Moscow and the Moscow region are more involved in the waste sorting process compared to other regions.
- Hedonistic values had a negative impact on the development of all (except resource conservation) groups of environmentally friendly behavior. Scientists believe that this is because hedonism is associated with the desire to enjoy life and the rejection of self-restraint.
- Among the political values stood out: faith in the free market, faith in equality and traditional values. Belief in the free market was most associated with unsustainable practices: low levels of energy conservation and sustainable consumption.
The idea of a free market is closely related to laissez-faire economic policy. This policy states that government economic intervention should be kept to a minimum.
According to experts, belief in the free market, hedonistic and selfish values are often combined. A person strives to achieve personal comfort and a high income, not paying attention to the condition of others or nature.
Elena Sautkina, Professor, Department of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics:
“The results obtained provide a more detailed understanding of the factors that influence the pro-environmental behavior of people in our country. So far, very little is known about them. In future studies, we plan to obtain new data that will allow us to build models that can explain this behavior.”