To Conserve or Not to Conserve: Is Status the Question?

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that environmentally friendly behavior is perceived as low status, which can explain why such behavior is not more widespread. However, greater awareness of environmental issues and the advent of a “green” movement may have seen a change in those attitudes. As some conservation behaviors used in past research may have been conflated with lower socioeconomic status, Study 1 identified financially neutral behaviors so that SES would not be confused for status in general. Study 2 utilized two of those behaviors to investigate whether engaging in conservation behavior per se is viewed as low status. Participants rated a target who performed either zero, one, or two conservation behaviors. Counter to earlier research, it was found that neither number nor type of environmental behaviors performed affected the perceived status of the target. These results suggest that attitudes toward conservation behavior may be improving; implications for increasing environmentally friendly behavior are discussed.

The influence of contextual cues on the perceived status of consumption-reducing behavior

“…This result differs from research suggesting that low cost environmental behaviors are considered low status (Sadalla and Krull, 1995), but it is consistent with Welte and Anastasio (2009) who found that recycling and composting were not associated with low status in the U.S.…”

“…This approach was modified from the activity list used by Sadalla and Krull (1995) and Welte and Anastasio (2009). Each time diary describes domestic activities and includes reference to one of three consumption-reducing behaviors (insulating windows with plastic sheeting, 2 riding the bus to the grocery store, repairing worn clothes) (see Table 1).…”

“…Respondents were asked to rate the actor in each time diary on a semantic-differential scale from high status to low status. 3 This adjectival pairing, also used in Sadalla and Krull (1995) and Welte and Anastasio (2009), formed the primary dependent variable. 4 The baseline behavior remained the same across the five time diaries for a given respondent, as did the gender of the actor portrayed.…”

“…One study suggests that low cost environmental behaviors (e.g. riding the bus or line drying laundry) are associated with low status (Sadalla and Krull, 1995) while another suggests that low cost behaviors are not socially stigmatized (Welte and Anastasio, 2009). The relationship between low cost environmental behaviors and social status has not been adequately explored, nor has the implication of status perceptions for the spread of such behaviors.…”

Willingness to act and environmentally conscious consumer behaviour: can prosocial status perceptions help overcome the gap?

“…social, environmental) and cause individuals to behave in ways other than ‘naked greed’ (Portes and Sensenbrenner, , p. 1323). The social context of the behaviour and the belief about how other people perceive this behaviour can thus be an important driver of environmentally conscious behaviour (Welte and Anastasio, ), although still presenting a self‐interested rationality associated with a purchase, where value gained is reflected in the positive images or beliefs one perceives others will hold of them based on their consumption decisions. Recent literature indicates that higher perceived status in a society is one of the potential long‐term individual benefits gained from environmentally conscious behaviour (Griskevicius et al ., ).…”