{"title":"Social institutions as enablers and inhibitors of environmental activism: A cross-cultural perspective","authors":"Colin B. Gabler, Meike Eilert","doi":"10.1111/joca.12578","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Societal well-being requires immediate global action from individuals and governments to vote on and enact policies that slow down, stop, and reverse the effects of climate change. To pressure governments and motivate policymakers to act, individuals can engage in environmental activism; however, even if individuals consider the environment important, they often do not follow through with action. Using a unique, large-scale secondary data set from over 60,000 individuals in 48 countries, we examine the influence of social institutions on environmental activism among a nation's citizens. We find that religiosity inhibits environmental activism while education enables it. Confidence in the judiciary system also increases the likelihood that individuals act on their pro-environmental attitudes while confidence in the government weakens this relationship. We discuss implications for policymakers and community organizers looking to increase the well-being of their constituents.</p>","PeriodicalId":47976,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Consumer Affairs","volume":"58 2","pages":"663-691"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Consumer Affairs","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joca.12578","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Societal well-being requires immediate global action from individuals and governments to vote on and enact policies that slow down, stop, and reverse the effects of climate change. To pressure governments and motivate policymakers to act, individuals can engage in environmental activism; however, even if individuals consider the environment important, they often do not follow through with action. Using a unique, large-scale secondary data set from over 60,000 individuals in 48 countries, we examine the influence of social institutions on environmental activism among a nation's citizens. We find that religiosity inhibits environmental activism while education enables it. Confidence in the judiciary system also increases the likelihood that individuals act on their pro-environmental attitudes while confidence in the government weakens this relationship. We discuss implications for policymakers and community organizers looking to increase the well-being of their constituents.
期刊介绍:
The ISI impact score of Journal of Consumer Affairs now places it among the leading business journals and one of the top handful of marketing- related publications. The immediacy index score, showing how swiftly the published studies are cited or applied in other publications, places JCA seventh of those same 77 journals. More importantly, in these difficult economic times, JCA is the leading journal whose focus for over four decades has been on the interests of consumers in the marketplace. With the journal"s origins in the consumer movement and consumer protection concerns, the focus for papers in terms of both research questions and implications must involve the consumer"s interest and topics must be addressed from the consumers point of view.