Global Changes and Local Accidents: Consistency in Attributions for Environmental Effects
Eiser, J. R., Reicher, S. D. & Podpadec, T. J. (1995). Global changes and local accidents: Consistency in attributions for environmental effects. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 17, 1518-1529.
Administered a questionnaire concerning environmental issues to 462 tourists visiting beaches in southwestern England. One set of items concerned the greenhouse effect and causes of global warming. Other items concerned a recent shipping accident that had resulted in oil pollution of beaches in the region. Attributing the greenhouse effect to individual or corporate behavior and interpreting climatic events as signs of this effect were associated with a belief that the consequences of global warming could be disastrous but controllable. Those who saw individual behavior as contributing to the greenhouse effect were more likely to attribute the oil spillage accident to bad seamanship, whereas those who felt that ordinary people could do little to stop the effects of global warming regarded the accident as one that could have happened to any tanker.
