Values, Beliefs and Environmental Citizenship

Abstract

In this chapter, we will consider the relationships between values, beliefs and Environmental Citizenship. The role of personal values, value orientations and environmental beliefs in explaining pro-environmental actions and behaviour is widely explored. It is already acknowledged that self-enhancement (egoistic and hedonistic) values are less predictive of pro-environmental actions than self-transcendence (biospheric and altruistic) values. Additionally, beliefs are considered to be at the core of human behaviour in cognitive theories explaining pro-environmental behaviour and are an important part of many theories used to predict pro-environmental actions. We regard Environmental Citizenship as a combination of certain pro-environmental actions and civic engagement, both public and private, that lead to the mitigation of environmental problems. It is important to answer the question of whether general values and beliefs can potentially be relevant antecedents of Environmental Citizenship. Understanding how values and beliefs relate to Environmental Citizenship would allow for evidence-based ways of promoting Environmental Citizenship in schools and communities and would empower educators to make effective decisions in promoting Environmental Citizenship.

Does the purchase intention of green consumers align with their zero-waste buying behaviour? An empirical study on a proactive approach towards embracing waste-free consumption

“…This signifies that an individual's values, such as altruistic values, are not an appropriate predictor of pro-environmental behaviour as altruism is more people-oriented than environment-oriented. As noted by Balunde et al [ 118 ], biospheric values (an altruistic values subset) are more closely related to environmentally favourable outcomes. Hence, it can be concluded that our sample consists of people who might have different values that are responsible for a negative relationship between altruistic motivation and pro-environmental belief.…”

Testing the simple model of environmental citizenship in a sample of adolescents

“…However, this also raises the need to look into participants' willingness to change their beliefs when confronted with evidence that contradicts their current point of view. It may be that various individual characteristics such as values or personality traits would moderate the effectiveness of learning about environmental issues (Balundė et al 2020;Jia et al 2017;Poškus, 2020;Poškus and Žukauskienė, 2017).…”

Responses to the Socio-Ecological Crisis: Perceptions of In-Service Teacher

“…However, there are still teachers who are new to the term, and there are teachers who state that they do not know and do not understand. Previous study identify three broad views concerning contemporary environmental issues: anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and technocentrism (Balundė et al, 2020). This complete view can be used to identify values that are relevant to pro-environmental behavior and environmental citizenship.…”