Measuring Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter provides an overview of the theoretical approaches to environmental attitudes and behaviors. It includes a discussion of different scales and surveys used in other programs with a focus on this topic. Scales measuring general environmental behavior, just like items in surveys, tend to focus on behavioral intentions and are correlated with environmentally friendly attitudes. In contrast, emission-related behavior depends more on context and socio-demographic characteristics and is rarely asked in surveys. Gaps frequently occur between environmental attitudes and general behaviors—the value-action gap—and between environmental behaviors and the actual ecological consequences of actions—the behavior-impact gap. Finally, previous results and problems encountered in the validation of self-reports on environmental behavior are highlighted.