Free-Market Ideology and Environmental Degradation

Heath, Yuko; Gifford, Robert

doi:10.1177/0013916505277998

Cited by 374 publications

(175 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Within a social-cognition framework, a different literature has focussed on the ideological polarisation currently characterising many developed democracies [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]. Most of this work has been carried out within English-speaking countries and is particularly suitable to the Australia setting [19,73,74].…”

Section: Analysis: Interpreting Our Results Within Common Narratives mentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens’ Views of Australia’s Future to 2050

2014

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Abstract:In four focus group exercises involving both forecasting and backcasting approaches, we gave approximately 100 Australian citizens the opportunity to discuss likely, desirable and feared futures to 2050. The image they paint is both coherent and consistent. Education, governance, personal attitudes and societal trends, rather than specific events, are drivers of a future which is perceived as being largely shaped by human choices. Innovation is believed to be more necessary in novel social arrangements than in further technology. The most feared futures arise from an amplification of trends already at play in the present: economic growth at the expense of the environment and quality of life, lack of equity, poor government, corporate greed, commercialism and erosion of social values. Economic and material growth does not feature in the most desired futures which are local, inclusive, peaceful, equitable and in some cases frugal. The visions and scenarios developed find a place within established foresight frameworks and global political narratives, but seem to lie at the fringe of current media and short-term political discourse. These results should not be interpreted as representative of the overall Australian population, but suggest that extending the analysis to the broader community could provide significant insights and enrich the discussion of important societal choices. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 223

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Section: Analysis: Interpreting Our Results Within Common Narratives mentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens’ Views of Australia’s Future to 2050

2014

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“…Furthermore, the benefits of behavioral changes may also be perceived as remote, and to only occur when many individuals change their behavior. Global warming and energy conservation illustrate these difficulties (Frantz & Mayer, 2009;Gifford, 2011;Heath & Gifford, 2006). People may believe that the negative consequences of global warming are uncertain, will only occur in the distant future, and will not be as relevant to the self as to others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Factors that Predict Energy Conservation: The Theory of Planned Behavior and Beliefs about Climate Change

Clément¹,

Henning²,

Osbaldiston³

2014

JSD

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A survey of college students was used to examine predictors of four types of energy conservation behavior. Our proposed predictors were derived from Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and from problem awareness variables (environmental concern, and knowledge and beliefs about global warming) thought to have indirect effects on conservation via TPB constructs. TPB constructs were significant direct predictors of target behaviors. Perceived behavioral control (PBC) was the strongest and most consistent predictor, predicting all four behaviors, followed by perceived worth (attitude), predicting three behaviors. TPB variables mediated the effects of either environmental concern or beliefs about the consequences of global warming on three behaviors. Finally, there were also significant mediating relationships among TPB variables themselves. Subjective norm predicted perceived worth and PBC, and perceived worth predicted PBC for all but one behavior. Theoretical implications and implications for intervention are discussed. To our knowledge this is the first study to separately demonstrate, in one sample, the predictive value of TPB with respect to different types of energy conservation, and to integrate TPB variables with climate-change beliefs.

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“…It is important to note that demographics and environmental goals at a range of levels of abstraction have been related to engagement in environmentally sustainable behavior in the past: This includes free-market ideology at the broadest level of abstraction (e.g., Heath & Gifford, 2006;Lewandowsky, Gignac, & Vaughan, 2013), environmental identity at a medium level (e.g., Fielding, McDonald, et al, 2008;Fielding, Terry, et al, 2008;Sparks & Shepherd, 1992) and beliefs in anthropogenic climate change at the most specific level of abstraction (e.g., Bord, O'Connor, & Fisher, 2000;Gifford, 2011;Leviston & Walker, 2012). Since the self-concordance of sustainable behaviors is partially based on the relationships these behaviors may have with environmental goals, we wanted to rule out the possibility that it is these relationships with environmental goals that are driving the behaviors, rather than the overall self-concordance, and thus we need to control for these variables.…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To capture free-market ideology, we included the measure by Heath and Gifford (2006), which asks participants to indicate the extent to which they agree with five statements (e.g., "The preservation of the free market system is more important than localized environmental concerns") on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree ( = .75). This measure was included in wave two.…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing pro-environmental behaviors by increasing self-concordance: Testing an intervention.

Unsworth

McNeill

2017

Journal of Applied Psychology

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Concordance: Testing an InterventionGlobally, there is a clear need to change our behavior to mitigate climate change. Many people, however, will not find the need for mitigation important enough to make their behavior more environmentally sustainable. Three studies supported the hypothesis that it is possible to overcome this issue by connecting these behaviors to goals that are important to people, even if such goals are unrelated to climate change or the environment in general.Study 1 (N = 305 working adults) showed that stronger self-concordance of behavior related to energy sustainability was related to a greater chance of signing a petition for increasing renewable energy sources. Next, two experimental studies (Study 2: N = 412 working and non-working adults, and Study 3: N = 300 working adults) showed that increasing selfconcordance of environmentally sustainable behaviors by asking people to cognitively connect either sustainable energy use (Study 2) or commuting behaviors (Study 3) to their personal goals increased intentions to engage in these behaviors compared to a control condition (Study 2 and Study 3) and compared to persuasion attempts based on climate change mitigation (Study 3). These findings occurred even after controlling for political orientation and environmental concerns. This research has significant practical implications for workplaces, particularly for those in which employees or managers place a low priority on environmental and climate change considerations.

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Free-Market Ideology and Environmental Degradation

Cited by 374 publications

References 26 publications

Citizens’ Views of Australia’s Future to 2050

Citizens’ Views of Australia’s Future to 2050

Integrating Factors that Predict Energy Conservation: The Theory of Planned Behavior and Beliefs about Climate Change

Increasing pro-environmental behaviors by increasing self-concordance: Testing an intervention.

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