Appreciation of nature and appreciation of environmental protection: How stable are these attitudes and which comes first?

Kaiser, Florian G.; Brügger, A.; Hartig, Terry; Gutscher, Heinz (2014). Appreciation of nature and appreciation of environmental protection: How stable are these attitudes and which comes first? Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée/European Review of Applied Psychology, 64(6), pp. 269-277. Elsevier 10.1016/j.erap.2014.09.001

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Introduction. – Attitude toward nature and attitude toward environmental protection are two separate but correlated attitudes. Little is known about the two attitudes’ stability/volatility over time, despite the practical value of such knowledge.
Objectives & method. – Using longitudinal survey data from 251 adults in a cross-lagged structural equation model, we assessed the degree of spontaneous (i.e., unprompted) change in the two attitudes. We also considered whether such change could provide evidence regarding causal direction; causation could go in either of two directions between the two attitudes, or it could even be bi-directional.
Results. – We corroborated the substantive connection between attitude toward nature and attitude toward environmental protection; however, the absence of change in the attitudes despite the passage of two years disallows reliable statements about causal direction.
Conclusion. – It is possible to protect the environment by encouraging appreciation of nature, but change in attitude toward nature and attitude toward environmental protection may be difficult to achieve with mature individuals.

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