Factors Influencing Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors

Barr, Stewart. 2007. “Factors Influencing Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors.” Environment and Behavior 39 (4) (July 1): 435 -473. doi:10.1177/0013916505283421.

This British study is unusual in that it examines recycling behavior and intent to see if it holds up when laid out in a conceptual framework in order to “provide an explanatory model for each of the identified behaviors”. The authors believed that the earlier framework was too simplistic and failed to take into account several other variables and factors. The main premise is that Environmental Values lead to Behavioral Intent ion which leads to Behavior itself. Each of these is influenced by Situational and/or Psychological variables. Situational variables are either enablers or disablers and Psychological variables are either Motivators or Barriers.

The results were defined by behavior and the willingness to do the behavior. These behaviors are the three mantras of the environmental movement: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The data was run through what could be argued as the most comprehensive analysis of any study I have seen to date. Each variable and factor was run against Environmental Values, Behavioral Intent and actual Behavior.

The interpretation was that the relationship between the intent and the behavior was as complicated as the author had believed. There are variables that predict either intent and behavior and some that predict both. This was also true between intent to reduce and actual waste reduction behavior and intent to reduce and reuse behavior as well as intent to recycle and actual recycling behavior.