The Perception and Knowledge of Climate Change and Values of ETH Members
Project report of the ETH-wide online survey about Climate Change within the framework of the CCES project ClimPol
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2010-03
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Report
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Abstract
The aim of the current study is to analyse the perception of Climate Change as well as to explain the intentions to behave climate-friendly. Therefore, three different theoretical approaches were chosen as theoretical basis for the study. One of the approaches is the risk perception of Climate Change with which it is possible to determine if Climate Change is perceived as high or as low risk. To assure the comparability with existing study results the studies of Leiserowitz (2005, 2006) were taken as a reference. As a further theoretical ap-proach the Cultural Theory of Wildawsky & Dake (1990) was used to analyse the impact of value types. According to this theory people can be divided into four value types, the Indi-vidualists, the Egalitarian, the Fatalists, and the Hierarchical. Depending on the predominant value types the risk of an event, for instance Climate Change, is perceived as high or as low. In addition, the Theory of Planned Behavior developed by Ajzen (1985) was used to explain the intention to behave climate-friendly. The Theory of Planned Behavior states, that human behavior is influenced by the attitudes towards a given behavior. Also the subjective norm, i.e. the perceived social pressure to perform this behavior is important. In addition, the the-ory takes into account the perceived behavioral control to perform the given behavior. If all three factors are positively correlated to the behavior, namely the attitudes are positive and social pressure and perceived behavioral control is strong, then the intention to perform a certain behavior should be high. The higher the intention, the more likely is that the behav-ior is undertaken. The behaviors under study were individual behavior such as saving en-ergy in the household, recycling and using public transportation.
To gain information about the perception of Climate Change and to explain the behav-ioral intentions an online-survey was conducted. The target group of this survey was all ETH-staff and students, in total 23’568. In November 2008 they were informed about the questionnaire via e-mail. The questionnaire was prepared in German and English and it con-tained questions concerning the risk perception and the value types. In addition, attitudes, social pressure, and the perceived behavioral control related to certain actions were meas-ured. The intentions to use public transport; to save energy in the household; to recycle; and to economically heat as well as the self reported behaviors were assessed. All theoretical constructs such as attitudes and norms were assessed by means of indicators, all rated on a five-point scale (e.g. 1=do not agree at all, 5=agree at all). The English questionnaire was answered by 317 persons. Since we do not have any information about the total population of English-speaking members of the ETH, we cannot compute the return rate (1.7% of 23’568). In this report the results of the English-speaking respondents (or non-German-speaking respondents) are presented1.
According to the results the respondents perceive Climate Change as a geographically distant risk. In contrast, Climate Change as a temporal distant risk is less strong perceived by the respondents. This suggests that the consequences of Climate Change are already per-ceived in the presence which is a good prerequisite for risk communication to motivate people to take action against Climate Change. For instance, it should be emphasized that local action is needed though Climate Change has global impacts.
The results of the value types indicate that Egalitarians perceive Climate Change stronger than other value types and are more willing to behave in a climate-friendly way. On the other hand, Individualists do hardly perceive Climate Change as a threat and are therefore not willing to take any action against Climate Change. Fatalists and Hierarchical are indif-ferent regarding the perception of Climate Change as a risk. Hence, they are hardly willing to take action and show little agreement with behavioral intentions. It seems, that Egalitarian do not need any external support regarding Climate Change. However, the Hierarchical could be motivated to take action against Climate Change by risk communication done by experts and social authorities. Regulations or prohibitions regarding the appropriate behav-ior would help Fatalists to behave in a climate-friendly way as this would form social pres-sure. In contrast, Individualists would need strong incentives to take action against Climate Change.
Most of the respondents show positive attitudes towards the behavior provided in the questionnaire, and the perceived behavioral control shows rather high values. Also, the in-tentions to perform the given behaviors are quite high. But the social pressure they perceive is moderate. These results were expected as the behaviors under consideration are rather common and also the necessary infrastructure is well established. Thus, future research should take into account other relevant behaviors.
To gain information about the perception of Climate Change and to explain the behav-ioral intentions an online-survey was conducted. The target group of this survey was all ETH-staff and students, in total 23’568. In November 2008 they were informed about the questionnaire via e-mail. The questionnaire was prepared in German and English and it con-tained questions concerning the risk perception and the value types. In addition, attitudes, social pressure, and the perceived behavioral control related to certain actions were meas-ured. The intentions to use public transport; to save energy in the household; to recycle; and to economically heat as well as the self reported behaviors were assessed. All theoretical constructs such as attitudes and norms were assessed by means of indicators, all rated on a five-point scale (e.g. 1=do not agree at all, 5=agree at all). The English questionnaire was answered by 317 persons. Since we do not have any information about the total population of English-speaking members of the ETH, we cannot compute the return rate (1.7% of 23’568). In this report the results of the English-speaking respondents (or non-German-speaking respondents) are presented1.
According to the results the respondents perceive Climate Change as a geographically distant risk. In contrast, Climate Change as a temporal distant risk is less strong perceived by the respondents. This suggests that the consequences of Climate Change are already per-ceived in the presence which is a good prerequisite for risk communication to motivate people to take action against Climate Change. For instance, it should be emphasized that local action is needed though Climate Change has global impacts.
The results of the value types indicate that Egalitarians perceive Climate Change stronger than other value types and are more willing to behave in a climate-friendly way. On the other hand, Individualists do hardly perceive Climate Change as a threat and are therefore not willing to take any action against Climate Change. Fatalists and Hierarchical are indif-ferent regarding the perception of Climate Change as a risk. Hence, they are hardly willing to take action and show little agreement with behavioral intentions. It seems, that Egalitarian do not need any external support regarding Climate Change. However, the Hierarchical could be motivated to take action against Climate Change by risk communication done by experts and social authorities. Regulations or prohibitions regarding the appropriate behav-ior would help Fatalists to behave in a climate-friendly way as this would form social pres-sure. In contrast, Individualists would need strong incentives to take action against Climate Change.
Most of the respondents show positive attitudes towards the behavior provided in the questionnaire, and the perceived behavioral control shows rather high values. Also, the in-tentions to perform the given behaviors are quite high. But the social pressure they perceive is moderate. These results were expected as the behaviors under consideration are rather common and also the necessary infrastructure is well established. Thus, future research should take into account other relevant behaviors.
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2010 (2)
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ETH, Gruppe Agrar-, Lebensmittel- und Umweltökonomie des Interdepartementalen Instituts für Umweltentscheidungen
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03327 - Lehmann, Bernard (ehemalig)