Environmental attitudes and environmental behavior-which is the horse and which is the cart?

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Eilam, Efrat ORCID: 0000-0001-6076-6487 and Trop, Tamar (2012) Environmental attitudes and environmental behavior-which is the horse and which is the cart? Sustainability, 4 (9). pp. 2210-2246. ISSN 2071-1050 (print) 2071-1050 (online)

Abstract

The present article challenges the prevailing perception in the field of environmental education that acquisition of environmental behavior is an ultimate goal of the educational process, in comparison to acquisition of environmental attitudes, which is perceived as a minor goal. The article presents a compilation of results obtained from two studies that shed new light on the relationship between influences on environmental attitudes and influences on environmental behavior. The results suggest that: (a) among adults, the strategies required for influencing attitudes are different from those required for influencing behaviors; (b) the mechanisms for achieving influence among children are different from those among adults; and (c) conventional educational approaches, such as behavior modification, can influence behavior more easily than they can influence attitudes. The results provide grounds for questioning the prevailing belief that individual acquisition of responsible environmental behavior can drive changes on the global political scale. We suggest increasing the focus of environmental education on construction of attitudes.

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Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/23353
DOI 10.3390/su4092210
Official URL http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/9/2210
Subjects Historical > FOR Classification > 1303 Specialist Studies in Education
Historical > FOR Classification > 1608 Sociology
Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > College of Education
Keywords ResPubID25603, environmental attitudes, environmental behaviour, environmental influence, intergenerational influence, community environmental education, community-based education, Israel
Citations in Scopus 72 - View on Scopus
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