Andersen Henrik Kenneth, Mayerl Jochen
Institute of Sociology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Thüringer Weg 9, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
Kolner Z Soz Sozpsychol. 2022;74(3):381-408. doi: 10.1007/s11577-022-00855-2. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
A large body of research exists investigating the link between environmental attitudes and behavior. Many empirical studies have found modest positive effects, suggesting that attitudes toward the environment might indeed influence environmental behavior. However, most of the previous empirical work is cross-sectional and correlational in nature. This means that the issue of the causal effect of environmental attitudes on behavior is far from settled, and that the relationships observed in the past may be due to unobserved confounders. In a panel study using six waves of the GESIS Panel Survey, we examine the individual-level effect of changes in one's attitudes on changes in different forms of environmental behavior. We use fixed effects panel regression within the structural equation modeling framework to control for unobserved time-invariant confounders, while also tackling other methodological challenges. We find that environmental attitudes have no effect on behavior after controlling for unobserved confounders. However, there is a robust effect of attitudes on willingness to sacrifice. This suggests that creating more positive attitudes might make individuals more willing to accept sacrifices for environmental protection.
存在大量研究探讨环境态度与行为之间的联系。许多实证研究发现了适度的积极影响，这表明对环境的态度可能确实会影响环境行为。然而，之前的大多数实证研究本质上都是横断面研究且具有相关性。这意味着环境态度对行为的因果效应问题远未解决，过去观察到的关系可能是由于未观察到的混杂因素。在一项使用德国社会经济面板调查（GESIS Panel Survey）六期数据的面板研究中，我们考察了个人态度变化对不同形式环境行为变化的个体层面影响。我们在结构方程建模框架内使用固定效应面板回归来控制未观察到的时间不变混杂因素，同时也应对其他方法上的挑战。我们发现，在控制了未观察到的混杂因素后，环境态度对行为没有影响。然而，态度对牺牲意愿有显著影响。这表明营造更积极的态度可能会使个人更愿意为环境保护接受牺牲。
