Environmentalism and Personality

Simon CohenJeff Edgar

Chris Latham-WardeSanni Kujala

Two Studies

• Hirsh, J.B. & Dolderman, D. (2007). Personality predictors of Consumerism and Environmentalism: A preliminary study. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1583-1593.

• Hirsh, J.B. (2010). Personality and Environmental Concern. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 245-248.

Personality predictors of Consumerism and Environmentalism - Hirsh & Dolderman, 2007

Environmentalismcompassion, social concern, a broader self-concept

Consumerismselfishness, possessiveness, accumulation of material possessions

Is there a link between these two values and the Big Five personality domains?

• Hirsh, J.B. & Dolderman, D. (2007). Personality predictors of Consumerism and Environmentalism: A preliminary study. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1583-1593.

Personality predictors of Consumerism and Environmentalism - Hirsh & Dolderman, 2007

• Do we adopt personal values that are compatible with our traits?

• Research suggests there is a relationship with Schwartz's value domains and the Big Five (Oliver & Mooradian, 2003)

• Assessment of participants' personality, consumer goals, and environmental attitudeso New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) - concern over environmental issueso Ecological Self Scale - sense of personal connection to the environmento Consumer Values Orientation Scale - value of material possessionso Behavioural Goals - either consumerist or pro-environmental behaviourso Big Five Inventory (BFI) - measure of Big Five personality traits

• Oliver, J.M. & Mooradian, T.A. (2003). Personality traits and personal values: A conceptual and empirical investigation. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 109–125.

Results

 • Participants:

        106 undergraduate students (74 female) • Measures of Environmentalism and

Consumerism were internally consistent

• Principal component analysis was used to produce composite Environmental and Consumer variables

• No significant gender differences in composite measures of Environmentalism or Consumerism

 

Results

 Correlations Between Composite Variables and

Personality Traits

• Consumerism and Agreeableness: r = -0.27   • Environmentalism and Agreeableness: r = 0.33

• Environmentalism and Openness:  r = 0.24  

Discussion

 Discussion of the Data • Low Agreeableness tends to be associated with

self focus. • High Agreeableness tends to be associated with

empathic concern. • Agreeableness and Openness predict different

parts of the total variance of environmentalism. 

Discussion

 Limitations of the Study

• No demographic variables were examined.

• No real world behaviour observed.

• No causal relationships established.

Personality and Environmental Concern

Jacob Hirsh, 2010

A follow-up study...

• Previous study investigated both Consumerism and Environmentalism

 • Positively linked Environmentalism with Agreeableness

and Openness • This follow-up study focusses on the personality traits

associated with environmental concern

Hypothesis: Agreeableness and Openness will remain significant predictors of increased environmental concern

Elaborating on the previous study...  

• Larger Sample Size (n=2690)

• Increased Age Range (26 to 93 years)

• Less Imbalanced Gender Distribution      (47% male and 53% female)

• Different Nationality

• Wider Social Grouping (not just undergraduate students)

    - Enables the study of Demographic Variables

Methods

Measuring personality:

15 item version of the Big Five Inventory(completed by participants in 2005)

Measuring environmental concern:

Responses to measures in studies spanning 1994-2007 There was a focus on 3 measures:1. Environmentally Concious2. Importance of Environmental Protection3. Worried about Environment

Results

• Latent environmental concern factor was strongly related to each environmental factor:

o "importance of environmental protection" - β = 0.94

o "worried about environment" - β = 0.64

o "environmentally conscious" - β = 0.62

Results

Environmental concern was in turn predicted by individual differences in the Big 5 personality traits:•  Agreeableness  - β = .22

• Openness - β = .20

• Neuroticism - β = .16

• Conscientiousness - β = .07 

• Extraversion - β = .02

Discussion

• Confirmed previous research that higher levels of Agreeableness and Openness are related to greater environmental concern (Hirsh and Dolderman, 2007)o Increased robustness due to such varied samples:

adult vs student population, German vs Canadian

• Higher levels of Neuroticism associated with higher levels of environmental concerno Individuals tend to be more worried about negative

outcomes in generalo More an egoistic form of environmental concern as

opposed to altruistic

Discussion

• Consciousness had a small but statistically significant effect on environmental concerno Possibly more likely to follow social guidelines and

norms for appropriate environmental action

Limitations

• Shortened 15 item BFI-S doesn't allow for assessment of lower-order personality traitso Some aspects of each Big 5 domain might relate

more strongly than otherso Also means the answers did not reflect a

comprehensive coverage of the entire domain of environmental attitudes