VALUES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN AND CONSERVATION BEHAVIOR

Abstract: Recent research has examined the relationship between values and attitudes about environmental issues.

Findings from these studies have found values of self-transcendence (positively) and self-enhancement

(negatively) to predict general concern for environmental problems. Other recent findings have differentiated

between environmental attitudes based on concern for self (egoistic), concern for other people (socialaltruistic),

and concern for plants and animals (biospheric). This article reports the results from a study of the

relationship between values and environmental attitudes in six countries: Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany,

India, New Zealand, and Russia. Results show strong support for the cross-cultural generalizability of the

relationship between values and attitudes and on the structure of environmental concern. In addition, analyses

of the relationship between values and environmental behavior show evidence for norm activation only

for self-transcendence; results for self-enhancement show a consistently negative relationship.

Keywords: values; environmental attitudes; environmental concern; conservation