Environmentalism and Personality

1. Environmentalism and Personality Simon Cohen Jeff Edgar Chris Latham-Warde Sanni Kujala

2. 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.

3. Personality predictors of Consumerism and Environmentalism - Hirsh & Dolderman, 2007 Environmentalism compassion, social concern, a broader self-concept Consumerism selfishness, 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.

4. 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 attitudes • New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) - concern over environmental issues • Ecological Self Scale - sense of personal connection to the environment • Consumer Values Orientation Scale - value of material possessions • Behavioural Goals - either consumerist or pro-environmental behaviours • 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. Discussion Limitations of the Study • No demographic variables were examined. • No real world behaviour observed. • No causal relationships established.

9. Personality and Environmental Concern Jacob Hirsh, 2010

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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 Concious 2. Importance of Environmental Protection 3. Worried about Environment

13. Results • Latent environmental concern factor was strongly related to each environmental factor: • "importance of environmental protection" - β = 0.94 • "worried about environment" - β = 0.64 • "environmentally conscious" - β = 0.62

14. 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

15. Discussion • Confirmed previous research that higher levels of Agreeableness and Openness are related to greater environmental concern (Hirsh and Dolderman, 2007) • Increased robustness due to such varied samples: adult vs student population, German vs Canadian • Higher levels of Neuroticism associated with higher levels of environmental concern • Individuals tend to be more worried about negative outcomes in general • More an egoistic form of environmental concern as opposed to altruistic

16. Discussion • Consciousness had a small but statistically significant effect on environmental concern • Possibly more likely to follow social guidelines and norms for appropriate environmental action

17. Limitations • Shortened 15 item BFI-S doesn't allow for assessment of lower-order personality traits • Some aspects of each Big 5 domain might relate more strongly than others • Also means the answers did not reflect a comprehensive coverage of the entire domain of environmental attitudes