The Value Basis of Environmental Concern
Stern, P.C., & Dietz, T. (1994). The value basis of environmental concern. Journal of Social Issues, 50, 3, 65-84.
Describes empirical tests of a theory linking values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior within a preference construction framework emphasizing the activation of personal environmental norms. Two initial studies are reported that emphasize the relationships of values to beliefs, environmental attitudes, and behavioral intentions and examine the operation of cognitive simplification rules of the norm-activation type. The 1st study uses measures of beliefs about consequences as a link between the biospheric, social-altruistic, and egoistic value orientations and support for environmental protection. Study 2 measures beliefs and values and examines the relationships of environmental beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions to each other and to a more complete set of value orientations. Results reveal a link between behavioral indicators of environmentalism and biospheric-altruistic and egoistic value orientations.
