To What Degree are Environmentally Beneficial Choices Reflective of a General Conservation Stance?

Abstract

Whether or not different environmentally beneficial choices have common motivational causes are discussed in the framework of partial correlation analysis with structural equation modeling. Correlations between recycling, buying organic food products, and using public transport or bicycle are analyzed based on telephone interviews with a random sample of about 1,100 Danish residents and two replication samples of about 300 from the same population. The study finds that theoretically meaningful correlations are suppressed by background characteristics. Common motivational causes, that is, environmental values and environmental concern, can account for the significant partial correlations between behaviors after controlling for background characteristics.