Openness Is Related to Proenvironmental Behavior Both Within and Across Families

Abstract

Environment-friendly behaviors may be desirable in helping to solve worldwide ecological issues. This has sparked interest in the associations of such behaviors with established psychological constructs such as the Five-Factor Model personality traits. Of these, Openness has been most consistently linked with proenvironmental behavior; yet, the extent of causality in this association is unclear. Using a sample of 168 individuals, including 84 sibling pairs, the present study replicated the association while controlling for factors in which families differ (environmental factors that siblings share and a proportion of genetic variance). Proenvironmental behavior was correlated with Openness ( r = .51) and the association could be observed both between ( r = .57) and within families ( r = .29), with adjustments for various demographic variables. These findings indicate that more open individuals tend to engage in proenvironmental behaviors, even when controlling for possibly confounding factors shared and not shared between siblings.