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Attitudes Toward Industrial Pollution, Strategies for Protecting the Environment, and Environmental‐Economic Trade‐offs
Author(s) -
Francis Rebecca S.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1983.tb01742.x
Subject(s) - denial , opposition (politics) , environmental quality , psychology , pessimism , environmental pollution , optimism , position (finance) , cognition , social psychology , political science , business , environmental protection , law , politics , environmental science , philosophy , epistemology , finance , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
Attitudes toward industrial pollution, environmental‐economic trade‐offs, and endorsement of various strategies and activities to protect the environment were examined in a community sample. Environmental attitudes were measured using seven distinct factors organized around four cognitive themes: commercialist‐expansionist‐emphasizing industrial concerns even at the expense of environmental considerations; reformist‐emphasizing the need and possibility of environmental quality; radical‐emphasizing pessimism over the possibility of environmental quality, given the present economic and policital system; and finally, denial that the community has been harmed by pollution. Examination of the relationship between pollution attitudes and endorsement of the various proenvironmental activities yielded a pattern consistent with a cognitive, syllogistic model of the organization of attitudes. Those emphasizing a commercialist position neither favored nor regarded the various environmental activities as effective. Those who emphasized reform endorsed the various activities as both favorable and effective. Denial was associated with opposition to the various activities. Finally, those taking a radical position favored the various strategies but were not convinced of their efficacy.