David Sherman (U California, Santa Barbara). Culture, Identity, and Support for Environmental Action

Addressing global issues such as climate change requires significant support and engagement of citizens with diverse socio-cultural and political backgrounds. This talk will present findings showing that people with different sociocultural backgrounds, beliefs, and identities support or reject pro-environmental actions for different reasons. I examine factors that influence the relationship and relative importance of personal factors (i.e., personally held environmental beliefs) and social factors (i.e., perceived social norms) as psychological antecedents of support for pro-environmental actions. The first part of the talk will examine cultural orientation (individualism-collectivism) as a moderator of the link between environmental beliefs, social norms, and support for environmental action.