The value of environmental self-identity: The relationship between biospheric values, environmental self-identity and environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour
Highlights
► Environmental self-identity is related to a broad range of environmental behaviours. ► Biospheric values are related to environmental behaviour. ► Environmental self-identity mediates the relationship between values and behaviour. ► Environmental self-identity may be an important tool for environmental campaigns.
Introduction
Self-identity and values have been viewed as important influences on environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour (e.g., Gatersleben, Murtagh, & Abrahamse, 2012; Sparks & Shepherd, 1992; Steg & De Groot, 2012). Self-identity is often defined as the label that one uses to describe oneself (Cook, Kerr, & Moore, 2002). Various scholars suggested that there is a relationship between values and self-identity. For example, Crompton and Kasser (2009) stated that “values and life goals are the aspects of people's identities that reflect what they deem to be desirable, important, and worthy of striving for in their lives” (p. 8). According to Verplanken and Holland (2002) “values may form important ingredients of a person's self-concept and thus contribute to a person's sense of identity” (p. 434). Also, Sparks and Shepherd (1992) indicate that “a person's self-identity would be reflected in that person's beliefs, values, and attitudes” (p. 390). Many authors thus suggest a relationship between values and self-identity, and some even suggest that they are similar to a certain extent. In the current paper we aim to take a first step in studying the relationships between biospheric values and environmental self-identity, and how both in turn are related to environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour. First, we describe the conceptual difference between biospheric values and environmental self-identity, and discuss how they are related. Additionally, we will describe how biospheric values and environmental self-identity in turn are related to preferences, intentions and behaviours in the environmental domain. Next, we will test our theoretical model on relationships between biospheric values, environmental self-identity, and environmental preferences, intentions, and behaviours empirically. In doing so, we will integrate the two lines of research on values and self-identity, respectively.
Values have been defined by Schwartz (1992) as desirable and transsituational goals that serve as guiding principles in one's life. Values are abstract and general and maintain stability over time (Feather, 1995). Studies showed that particularly biospheric values are strongly and consistently related to environmental preferences, intentions, and behaviour: those with strong biospheric values are more likely to have pro-environmental preferences and intentions, and to act pro-environmentally (see Steg & De Groot, 2012, for a review). People who strongly endorse biospheric values care for nature and the environment and more strongly base their decisions to engage in particular actions on the consequences of their behaviour for nature and the environment. Biospheric values have been shown to be related to a wide range of pro-environmental preferences and actions, including acceptability of climate change policies (Nilsson, von Borgstede, & Biel, 2004; Steg, De Groot, Dreijerink, Abrahamse, & Siero, 2011), sustainable consumption (Thøgersen & Ölander, 2002), environmental activism (Steg et al., 2011), pro-environmental behaviour (Schultz & Zelezny, 1998), preference for restaurants serving organic food (Steg et al., 2012), and donating money to an environmental rather than a humanitarian organisation (De Groot & Steg, 2008). Values reflect what people find important in their lives and should as such affect how people want to see themselves (i.e., their ideal selves) and what type of person they want to be, as well as how they actually see themselves. In other words, values should influence one's self-identity.
Self-identity has been defined as the label used to describe oneself (Cook et al., 2002), which relates to a particular behaviour (Conner & Armitage, 1998). Hence, we define an environmental self-identity as the extent to which you see yourself as a type of person who acts environmentally-friendly. Someone with a strong environmental self-identity will more strongly see himself or herself as the type of person who will act environmentally-friendly and consequently be more likely to act pro-environmental. Please note that our conceptualisation of environmental self-identity differs from the concept environmental identity (e.g., Clayton & Opotow, 2003; Schultz & Tabanico, 2007) which has been conceptualised as a sense of connection to some part of the nonhuman natural environment that affects the way we perceive and act towards the world; a belief that the environment is important to us and an important part of who we are. Hence, environmental identity reflects whether one sees oneself as part of nature, whereas environmental self-identity reflects the view of self as a person who acts pro-environmentally. We think environmental self-identity is particularly relevant to understanding pro-environmental actions, as it more directly reflects pro-environmental actions, rather than only the importance of the environment as such for the self. Although environmental self-identity and environmental identity may be related, they are not necessarily the same. For example, you may see yourself as part of nature, but not as a person who acts pro-environmentally, for example because you do not acknowledge environmental problems, or do not link such problems to individual actions.
A few studies on self-identity in the environmental domain examined to what extent specific self-identities were related to behaviour related to that identity. These studies employed measures of self-identity that corresponded to our definition of environmental self-identity, namely: the extent to which people see themselves as the type of person who performs that particular environmental behaviour. These studies revealed that specific self-identities indeed predicted the relevant behaviours. For example, recycling self-identity appeared to be related to recycling behaviour (Nigbur, Lyons, & Uzzell, 2010), environmental activism self-identity was related to environmental activism (Fielding, McDonald, & Louis, 2008) and genetically modified food self-identity was found to be related to the intention to purchase genetically modified food (Cook et al., 2002). These specific self-identities are likely to be related to behaviours related to that self-identity, but are probably less predictive of other types of pro-environmental actions. Recent studies suggest that people may also have a more general environmental self-identity which may be related to a range of environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour. For example, green (self-) identity was related to eco-shopping, waste reduction, water savings, and domestic energy conservation (Whitmarsh & O'Neill, 2010), while the environmental self-identity was related to various pro-environmental behaviours, recycling, buying fair trade products and not flying on holiday (Gatersleben et al., 2012). Such general environmental self-identities may be promising pointers for strategies aimed at promoting pro-environmental actions, because by targeting environmental self-identity, a range of preferences and behaviours may change simultaneously. Therefore, in the current paper we will focus on general environmental self-identities which may predict a range of environmental preferences, intentions and behaviours.
There is a conceptual difference between values and self-identity: values are general and abstract principles that you strive for in life, while self-identity reflects how you see yourself. Although it is likely that biospheric values and environmental self-identity are related, as we will explain below, they may not always be consistent. The fact that you strive for unity with nature does not necessarily mean that you see yourself as the type of person who acts environmentally-friendly. For example, even though you strive for unity with nature, you may always go to work by car instead of by bike and therefore not see yourself as an environmentally-friendly person. Hence, in theory, someone can thus have strong biospheric values, but not a strong environmental self-identity as this identity also depends on the extent to which you actually engage in pro-environmental actions. Indeed, according to Biel, Dahlstrand, and Grankvist (2005), many people endorse biospheric values, but for a small minority being environmentally-friendly is part of their identity. A possible explanation for such apparent inconsistencies may be that one believes technological solutions will solve environmental problems rather than pro-environmental actions, or that others should take responsibility to reduce these problems (such as industry or the government).
As indicated above, even though biospheric values and environmental self-identity may not always be consistent, they are likely to be related. Self-identity is likely to be influenced by one's values. For example, if you think protecting the environment is a guiding principle in your life, you are likely to think that you should act upon your values and to see yourself as a person who acts environmentally friendly. In addition, self-identity is likely to be influenced by past behaviour (e.g., Lee, Piliavin, & Call, 1999). For example, if you realise that you recycled your waste, you are more likely to see yourself as a person who acts pro-environmentally. The latter implies that self-identity is more likely to change over time (e.g., by reminding people on their past pro-environmental actions), in contrast to values that are believed to be general and relatively stable over time (Feather, 1995). However, we propose that environmental self-identity will only change to some extent as it is also related to one's core values. This may make environmental self-identity an especially important factor to study, as it is likely to be stable to a certain extent (as it is influenced by values), but also susceptible to change (via past behaviour) and thus may be strengthened (e.g., by reminding people on their previous pro-environmental actions) in order to promote pro-environmental actions. In sum, we hypothesize that one's environmental self-identity is related to biospheric values.
There is some initial evidence to suggest that values influence self-identity. Hitlin (2003) found that the strength of a volunteer identity was predicted by self-transcendent values, reflecting universalism and benevolence values. Those who found self-transcendent values more important had a stronger volunteer identity than those who found self-transcendent values less important. Interestingly, in a longitudinal study, Hitlin (2003) found that self-transcendent values predicted the volunteering identity even when controlling for prior measures of the same identity. This suggests that values may indeed be, as we reason, a stable factor influencing one's identity.
We propose that the stronger one's biospheric values, the more strongly a person sees himself or herself as an environmentally-friendly person. Moreover, the more one sees oneself as an environmentally-friendly person, the more one is motivated to act in line with this environmental self-identity. We predict that environmental self-identity mediates the relationship between biospheric values and environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour. As explained above, values reflect your ideal self, whereas environmental self-identity is also influenced by past behaviour and thus more strongly reflects your actual self. One's actual self is likely to be a better predictor of behaviour than one's ideal self (cf. Higgins, 1987). Based on this, we propose that biospheric values are related to environmental self-identity which is in turn related to environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour. Hence, we expect that environmental self-identity mediates the relationship between biospheric values and environmental behaviour. A study by Whitmarsh and O'Neill (2010) provides some preliminary support for our reasoning. Their study showed that general environmental concern (that is, the New Environmental Paradigm; Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000) did not predict environmental behaviour when pro-environmental self-identity was also included in the regression analysis. This is to be expected if self-identity indeed mediates the relationship between values (or other general antecedents such as environmental concern) and behaviour. However, Whitmarsh and O'Neill (2010) did not test if the relationship was mediated by self-identity, and their study focused on environmental concern (i.e., NEP) rather than values, while values proved to be a better predictor of pro-environmental preferences and behaviour than environmental concern (Steg et al., 2011).
Section snippets
Hypotheses
In the present research we examined the relationship between biospheric values, environmental self-identity and environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour in a series of studies. Based on the above, we put forward three hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that biospheric values are not only conceptually different, but can also be empirically distinguished from environmental self-identity (Hypothesis 1). Second, we expected that biospheric values are related to environmental
Study 1
Study 1 aimed to examine factors influencing energy use. Energy use is a major contributor to environmental problems (Dietz, Gardner, Gilligan, Stern, & Vandenbergh, 2009). Energy use depends on a wide range of behaviours, including energy use at home, for transport, and indirect energy use (or: embodied energy), that is, the energy used to produce, distribute, and dispose of products (Reinders, Vringer, & Blok, 2003). We selected energy-related behaviour from three different domains, namely
Study 2
Study 2 aimed to replicate the findings of Study 1 with a more general measure of self-identity: environmental self-identity. Also, to further examine the validity and robustness of our findings, we included different dependent variables. More specifically, in Study 2 we focused on the use of green or renewable energy sources. If people would use more renewable energy sources instead of oil, gas or coal, CO2 emissions could be significantly reduced. To test if environmental self-identity is
Study 3
In Study 3 we again tested if environmental self-identity is empirically distinct from biospheric values. Second, we tested if biospheric values are related to environmental self-identity several months later (Hypothesis 2b). Also, again we tested if the relationship between biospheric values and behaviour is mediated by environmental self-identity (Hypothesis 3). For this purpose, participants first filled in the short value questionnaire including biospheric values. A few months later, we
General discussion
In the present research we aimed to study the relationship between biospheric values, environmental self-identity, and environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour. Various authors suggested a relationship between values and identity, and some even suggested that they are similar to a certain extent (Crompton & Kasser, 2009; Sparks & Shepherd, 1992; Verplanken & Holland, 2002). We aimed to make a clear conceptual distinction between biospheric values and environmental self-identity, to
Acknowledgements
Study 1 was made possible through funding from the European Commission 7th framework Programme for the project GILDED, see http://www.gildedeu.org/.
Study 2 was made possible through funding from AgentschapNL for the EOS-demo project ‘Smart Storage’. We thank Martijn Bongaerts and Sander Schouwenaar for a fruitful collaboration.
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