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Correlates of Environmental Behaviors

Bringing Back Social Context

Gunnar Grendstad

Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen

Dag Wollebaek

Norwegian Research Center in Organization and Management, University of Bergen

Surveys are an efficient and convenient means of collecting data on individuals’ environmental concerns and environmental behaviors, two domains between which a tenuous relationship is often observed. One aspect of tenuousness is addressed by identifying distinct subdimensions of self-reported private environmental behaviors. Survey methods more often than not fail to account for the social context within which individuals are environmentally concerned and behave in an environmentally friendly way. The problem of social context is addressed by developing a measure of social networks that includes participation, volunteering, and face-to-face contact with friends in environmental organizations. Evidence is taken from surveys among organized environmentalists and the general population in Norway in 1995 (N = 3,111). Social context is the only variable that significantly augments environmental behaviors across all subdimensions. Its effect is comparable to sociodemography, political attitudes, and environmental knowledge and concern combined.

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 2, 181-208 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0013916501332002


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