Personal Norms for Dealing with Climate Change: Results from a Survey Using Moral Foundations Theory

Climate change has become one of the main issues in environmental and sustainability discussions during the last decade. Acting to reduce climate change can be viewed as a prosocial behavior, and previous research has found that personal norms are important in explaining these types of behaviors, to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainable development (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 381 - 395
Main Authors: Jansson, Johan, Dorrepaal, Ellen
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Chichester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2015
Wiley Periodicals Inc
Subjects:
Adhesion
Attitude surveys
Attitudes
Change agents
Climate change
Data processing
Ecological monitoring
Empirical analysis
Environmental Science
Equity
Foundations
miljövetenskap
Moral Foundations Theory (MFT)
Morality
Norms
personal norms
Polls & surveys
Prosocial behavior
Psychology
psykologi
questionnaire survey
Social factors
Social norms
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Sweden
Sweden
ANE, Sweden
ISSN:0968-0802, 1099-1719, 1099-1719
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Climate change has become one of the main issues in environmental and sustainability discussions during the last decade. Acting to reduce climate change can be viewed as a prosocial behavior, and previous research has found that personal norms are important in explaining these types of behaviors, together with other attitudinal factors. In this study we use Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) to explore the antecedents of personal climate change norms together with three attitudinal factors: problem awareness, social norms and adherence to the New Ecological Paradigm. Analyzing data from a nationwide survey (N = 1086) conducted in Sweden, we find that the moral foundations concerning harm and fairness are positively associated with personal climate change norms, whereas authority has a negative relation. However, the moral foundations from MFT contribute less in explaining personal climate change norms compared with the attitudinal factors included in the study. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed. © 2015 The Authors Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Bibliography:ArticleID:SD1598
Swedish Research Council Formas - No. 214-2011-788
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ark:/67375/WNG-K8DTKRCM-F
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0968-0802
1099-1719
1099-1719
DOI:10.1002/sd.1598