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A Multinational Examination of the Role of the Dominant Social Paradigm in Environmental Attitudes of University Students

Sam Houston State University

Suzanne C. Beckmann

Saatchi & Saatchi Copenhagen; Department of Marketing at the Copenhagen Business School

Alan Lewis

University of Bath, UK

Ynte van Dam

Marketing and consumer behavior group at Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands

This study examined the difference between environmental attitudes of university students in England, Denmark, and the United States. The results indicate that there is a significant relationship between attitudes toward technology, politics, and economics, the primary elements of the dominant social paradigm (DSP), and environmental attitudes. Specifically, as beliefs in the elements of the DSP increase, the perception of the existence of environmental problems decreases. As a result of this decrease, perceived changes necessary to alleviate environmental problems also decreases. The results also indicate that there is a direct relationship between the DSP and perceived change. The policy implications of this result suggest that what is needed is not only increased concern for the environment, but also, education about the DSP and its effect on the environment. Individuals may then break the cycles of technological advance, increased consumption, and reform politics, all of which appear to be complicit in environmental decline.

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 2, 209-228 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/00139160121972954


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