Pro-Environmental Behavior and Its Antecedents as a Case of Social and Temporal Dilemmas

Abstract

Greater global and local responsible environmental behavior requires the consideration of future consequences of today’s choices and decisions. As such, much pro-environmental behavior might be defined as cases of environmental social and temporal dilemma. The goal of this research was to assess the direct contributions of future orientation, subjective knowledge, and trust in people to environmental behavior, and their indirect contribution through their effects on willingness to sacrifice. Study Design: Survey study. This survey was a part of an International environment quantitative survey project of ISSP (International Social Survey Programme). Place and Duration of Study: The research is based on survey data collected in Israel during 2010. Methodology: Survey data was collected by means of face-to-face interviews among 1216 respondents, which were a representative sample of the Israeli adult population. Pro- environmental behavior served as the dependent variable; future orientation, trust and subjective knowledge as three predictors and willingness to sacrifice were treated as a mediator. The data analysis included simple descriptive and zero-order correlations and the research model was tested by the structural equation model (SEM). Results: SEM model found a very good fit between data and the research model and assumptions (χ2 /df = 3.503), GFI = .988; CFI = .97). The three predictors - future orientation, subjective knowledge and trust in people - had a positive significant direct contribution to pro-environmental behavior and that future orientation and subjective knowledge also had a positive significant indirect contribution through their effect on willingness to sacrifice. Future orientation was found to be the central and most influential element in the model (direct impact .43, indirect impact .35). Conclusion: We argue that the concepts and theories of environmental social dilemma and temporal dilemma are central for explaining the effects of future orientation, trust in people and subjective knowledge on environmental behavior.