Human-Environment System Knowledge: A Correlate of Pro-Environmental Behavior

Pablo Díaz-Siefer, Alexander Neaman, Eduardo Salgado, Juan L. Celis-Diez and Siegmar Otto
Additional contact information
Pablo Díaz-Siefer: Escuela de Agronomía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Quillota 2260000, Chile
Alexander Neaman: Escuela de Agronomía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Quillota 2260000, Chile
Eduardo Salgado: Escuela de Agronomía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Quillota 2260000, Chile
Juan L. Celis-Diez: Escuela de Agronomía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Quillota 2260000, Chile
Siegmar Otto: Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg 39106, Germany

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: An effective program of environmental education requires the identification of the knowledge that must be imparted. This paper compares the effects of human-environment system knowledge ( i.e. , knowledge related to environmental problems caused by humans) and environmental action knowledge ( i.e. , knowledge of possible courses of action to reduce human impact on the environment) on pro-environmental behavior. Environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behavior of 950 Chilean adults were assessed with a survey. Both types of knowledge were related to pro-environmental behavior ( r = 0.25 and r = 0.22, respectively, p < 0.001). These results seem to contradict previous studies that found that system knowledge is not directly related to pro-environmental behavior. However, existing scales of environmental system knowledge are behavioral-distant due to their greater number of general geography knowledge items. In contrast, our human-environmental system knowledge scale focuses on understanding global environmental problems and, therefore, can be expected to relate more closely to pro-environmental behavior. To promote pro-environmental behavior, we suggest teaching more human-environment system knowledge and environmental action knowledge. Since different forms of environmental knowledge must work together in a convergent manner in order to foster pro-environmental behavior, the present study represents an important contribution by showing that greater human-environment system knowledge is correlated with pro-environmental behavior.

Keywords: ecological behavior; pro-environmental behavior; environmental education; action knowledge; geography knowledge; effectiveness knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/11/15510/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/11/15510/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:11:p:15510-15526:d:59181

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().