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Explaining environmental behavior with values, worldviews, and self-construal: Different sides of the same coin?

Bretter, Christian and Schulz, Felix LU orcid (2025) In Journal of Environmental Psychology 106.
Abstract
Values, worldviews, and self-construal are strong correlates of pro-environmental behavior. In this brief empirical note, we argue that these constructs overlap conceptually and share underlying dimensions. Using an international sample of 11,964 individuals, we demonstrate that values, worldviews, and self-construal can be reduced to two dimensions, self-focus and other-focus, capturing 67 % of variance. In the context of climate policy support, we then show via linear regression models and machine-learning techniques that a model solely using these two dimensions and a model using values, worldviews, and self-construal as predictor variables perform equally well in explaining and predicting policy support. The other-focus dimension was... (More)
Values, worldviews, and self-construal are strong correlates of pro-environmental behavior. In this brief empirical note, we argue that these constructs overlap conceptually and share underlying dimensions. Using an international sample of 11,964 individuals, we demonstrate that values, worldviews, and self-construal can be reduced to two dimensions, self-focus and other-focus, capturing 67 % of variance. In the context of climate policy support, we then show via linear regression models and machine-learning techniques that a model solely using these two dimensions and a model using values, worldviews, and self-construal as predictor variables perform equally well in explaining and predicting policy support. The other-focus dimension was particularly influential, explaining 88 % of the model's variance. While acknowledging the potential for more granular understanding when using separate constructs, our findings suggest that scholars do not sacrifice explanatory accuracy when focusing on the constructs' underlying dimensions, particularly the other-focus dimension. (Less)
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author
and
organization
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Values, worldviews, policy support, environmental behaviors
in
Journal of Environmental Psychology
volume
106
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:105014407668
ISSN
1522-9610
DOI
10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102750
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e0ba4121-6148-4dd9-aede-69d6344ad689
alternative location
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494425002336?via%3Dihub
date added to LUP
2025-09-05 10:42:38
date last changed
2025-09-08 10:46:18
@article{e0ba4121-6148-4dd9-aede-69d6344ad689,
  abstract     = {{Values, worldviews, and self-construal are strong correlates of pro-environmental behavior. In this brief empirical note, we argue that these constructs overlap conceptually and share underlying dimensions. Using an international sample of 11,964 individuals, we demonstrate that values, worldviews, and self-construal can be reduced to two dimensions, self-focus and other-focus, capturing 67 % of variance. In the context of climate policy support, we then show via linear regression models and machine-learning techniques that a model solely using these two dimensions and a model using values, worldviews, and self-construal as predictor variables perform equally well in explaining and predicting policy support. The other-focus dimension was particularly influential, explaining 88 % of the model's variance. While acknowledging the potential for more granular understanding when using separate constructs, our findings suggest that scholars do not sacrifice explanatory accuracy when focusing on the constructs' underlying dimensions, particularly the other-focus dimension.}},
  author       = {{Bretter, Christian and Schulz, Felix}},
  issn         = {{1522-9610}},
  keywords     = {{Values; worldviews; policy support; environmental behaviors}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Environmental Psychology}},
  title        = {{Explaining environmental behavior with values, worldviews, and self-construal: Different sides of the same coin?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102750}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102750}},
  volume       = {{106}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}