PAPER: Environmental protection/exploitation

The differential psychology of environmental protection/exploitation (La psicología diferencial de la protección/explotación medioambiental)

April 2021

Milfont TL 2021. The differential psychology of environmental protection/exploitation (La psicologia diferencial de la proteccion/explotacion medioambiental). Psyecology-Revista Bilingue De Psicologia Ambiental 12(3): 398-427.

ABSTRACT

Differential psychology focuses on how individuals vary in the way they think, feel and act by measuring differences that distinguish them as more similar to themselves over time and across situations than other individuals. In this article I review and discuss available evidence on key individual differences associated with protection and exploitation of the natural environment. The discussion centres on personality traits, basic human values, time perspective and system-justifying ideological orientations. Environmental protection has been shown to be consistently related to higher levels of Openness to Experience and Agreeableness (and somewhat Honesty-Humility) traits, Self-Transcendence and Openness to Change values and future thinking. Conversely, environmental exploitation is consistently related to higher levels of conservative political orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation. Individual differences research provides useful theoretical information that can have applied benefits in designing communication strategies to bring individuals less prone to protect the natural environment on board. Issues with jangle fallacy (measures with different names might not necessarily assess different things) and directions for future research are also discussed.

KEYWORDS

environmentalism; individual differences; differential psychology; environmental protection; environmental exploitation