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The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries

Given the importance of environmental values (altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic) to pro-environmental behavior, it would be useful to segment the population – an approach known as market segmentation – to tailor pro-environmental messages more effectively. Sociodemographic variables are popular t...

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Autores principales: Sargisson, Rebecca J., De Groot, Judith I. M., Steg, Linda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7485386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32982897
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02253
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author Sargisson, Rebecca J.
De Groot, Judith I. M.
Steg, Linda
author_facet Sargisson, Rebecca J.
De Groot, Judith I. M.
Steg, Linda
author_sort Sargisson, Rebecca J.
collection PubMed
description Given the importance of environmental values (altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic) to pro-environmental behavior, it would be useful to segment the population – an approach known as market segmentation – to tailor pro-environmental messages more effectively. Sociodemographic variables are popular targets for segmentation, as such variables are often knowable in the absence of more nuanced information about individuals. However, evidence for the relationship between sociodemographics and environmental values is sparse, and contradictory. We examined the extent to which popular sociodemographic variables (gender, age, income, education, urbanization level, and political orientation) were predictive of environmental values for 11,820 participants across seven European countries. Overall, sociodemographics were hardly related to environmental values. Only gender and political orientation were weakly but significantly related to environmental values, whereby men and right-wingers showed weaker altruistic and biospheric, and stronger egoistic, values than women and left-wingers. We conclude that sociodemographic variables cannot be considered a suitable proxy for environmental values, and thus that behavior-change campaigns might be more impactful when focused on alternative segmentation strategies in relation to environmental aims.
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spelling pubmed-74853862020-09-24 The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries Sargisson, Rebecca J. De Groot, Judith I. M. Steg, Linda Front Psychol Psychology Given the importance of environmental values (altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic) to pro-environmental behavior, it would be useful to segment the population – an approach known as market segmentation – to tailor pro-environmental messages more effectively. Sociodemographic variables are popular targets for segmentation, as such variables are often knowable in the absence of more nuanced information about individuals. However, evidence for the relationship between sociodemographics and environmental values is sparse, and contradictory. We examined the extent to which popular sociodemographic variables (gender, age, income, education, urbanization level, and political orientation) were predictive of environmental values for 11,820 participants across seven European countries. Overall, sociodemographics were hardly related to environmental values. Only gender and political orientation were weakly but significantly related to environmental values, whereby men and right-wingers showed weaker altruistic and biospheric, and stronger egoistic, values than women and left-wingers. We conclude that sociodemographic variables cannot be considered a suitable proxy for environmental values, and thus that behavior-change campaigns might be more impactful when focused on alternative segmentation strategies in relation to environmental aims. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-08-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7485386/ /pubmed/32982897 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02253 Text en Copyright © 2020 Sargisson, De Groot and Steg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Sargisson, Rebecca J.
De Groot, Judith I. M.
Steg, Linda
The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries
title The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries
title_full The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries
title_fullStr The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries
title_full_unstemmed The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries
title_short The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries
title_sort relationship between sociodemographics and environmental values across seven european countries
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7485386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32982897
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02253
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