Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

10-2016

Abstract

Research on sustainability behaviors has been based on the assumption that increasing personal concerns about the environment will increase proenvironmental action. We tested whether this assumption is more applicable to individualistic cultures than to collectivistic cultures. In Study 1, we compared 47 countries (N = 57,268) and found that they varied considerably in the degree to which environmental concern predicted support for proenvironmental action. National-level individualism explained the between-nation variability above and beyond the effects of other cultural values and independently of person-level individualism. In Study 2, we compared individualistic and collectivistic nations (United States vs. Japan; N = 251) and found culture-specific predictors of proenvironmental behavior. Environmental concern predicted environmentally friendly consumer choice among European Americans but not Japanese. For Japanese participants, perceived norms about environmental behavior predicted proenvironmental decision making. Facilitating sustainability across nations requires an understanding of how culture determines which psychological factors drive human action.

Keywords

culture, norms, individualism, sustainability, proenvironmental action, open materials

Discipline

Place and Environment | Sociology of Culture

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Psychological Science

Volume

27

Issue

10

First Page

1331

Last Page

1339

ISSN

0956-7976

Identifier

10.1177/0956797616660078

Publisher

Association for Psychological Science

Comments

Featured in Nature Climate Change news and views: Zaval, L. (2016) Culture and climate action. Nature Climate Change, 6, 1061–1062. http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n12/full/nclimate3164.html?WT.feed_na me=subjects_biological-sciences

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616660078

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