The Relative Role of Knowledge and Empathy in Predicting Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behavior

Marina Ienna, Amelia Rofe, Monica Gendi, Heather E. Douglas, Michelle Kelly, Matthew W. Hayward, Alex Callen, Kaya Klop-Toker, Robert J. Scanlon, Lachlan G. Howell and Andrea S. Griffin
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Marina Ienna: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Amelia Rofe: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Monica Gendi: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Heather E. Douglas: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Michelle Kelly: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Matthew W. Hayward: Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Alex Callen: Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Kaya Klop-Toker: Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Robert J. Scanlon: Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Lachlan G. Howell: Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Andrea S. Griffin: Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Planet Earth is undergoing unprecedented levels of environmental degradation and destruction at a global scale. Incentivizing people to adopt behaviors that are compatible with a sustainable future will help address the current ecological crisis. However, it is first necessary to understand the psychological drivers of pro-environmental behavior. Here, we examined whether greater levels of environmental knowledge and empathy predicted higher levels of pro-environmental behavior in an Australian population sample. We aimed to advance our understanding of the psychological variables that motivate people to act in pro-environmental ways, while also advancing the ongoing debate amongst conservation scientists regarding the relative importance of fostering empathy. Correlational analyses revealed that objective, verifiable knowledge was a strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behavior. Empathy also correlated positively with pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, but with a dissociation with respect to its cognitive and affective components. Multivariate analyses revealed that knowledge was a stronger predictor of both pro-environmental attitudes and behavior after controlling for individual variation in cognitive and affective empathy. This finding casts doubt on the claim by compassionate conservationists that fostering empathy is the key to solving the current environmental conservation crisis. Future research should aim to extend the present findings by testing whether a more exhaustive test of participants’ environmental knowledge and other measures of empathy, including empathic competencies and the recently developed Emotional and Cognitive Scale of the Human–Nature Relationship (ECS-HNR), yield the same dominance of knowledge over empathy.

Keywords: pro-environmental behavior; environmentally friendly behavior; sustainable behavior; environmental knowledge; empathy; compassionate conservation; conservation psychology; conservation science; human-induced environmental change; anthropogenic environmental change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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