Are we measuring concern about global climate change correctly? Testing a novel measurement approach with the data from 28 countries

The aim of this study is to test the Campbell paradigm (Kaiser et al. 2010) as a novel theoretical framework for the measurement of concern about global climate change and to compare this measurement approach with conventional assessment of GCC concern which is based exclusively on evaluative rating of global climate change concern. Using survey data from 28 European countries (N = 27,919), we find that GCC concern can be inferred not just from evaluative statements related to GCC, as is done in conventional measures, but also from other types of attitude-relevant responses (such as self-reports of mitigation activities and evaluation of mitigation policies). In addition, we also find that even though Campbellian measure is related in a theoretically expected way to conventional evaluative scale of GCC concern, and both measures assess the same latent construct, the former measure can predict difficult mitigation activity whereas the evaluative scale fails in this test of criterion validity. The poor performance of the conventional evaluative measure of GCC concern is due to the relative easiness of evaluative items that makes this measure insensitive to higher levels of GCC concern.

[1]  Jan Urban,et al.  Structure of Domestic Energy Saving , 2016 .

[2]  A. Spence,et al.  The Psychological Distance of Climate Change , 2012, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[3]  A. Leiserowitz.  Climate Change Risk Perception and Policy Preferences: The Role of Affect, Imagery, and Values , 2006 .

[4]  Franz X. Bogner,et al.  La búsqueda de los posibles orígenes de una actitud favorable hacia la naturaleza , 2012 .

[5]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  The motivational and instantaneous behavior effects of contexts : steps towards a theory of goal-directed behavior , 2005 .

[6]  F. Kaiser,et al.  One for All? Connectedness to Nature, Inclusion of Nature, Environmental Identity, and Implicit Association with Nature , 2011 .

[7]  C. Dienes.  Actions and intentions to pay for climate change mitigation: Environmental concern and the role of economic factors , 2015 .

[8]  K. Smolders,et al.  Need for recovery in offices : behavior-based assessment , 2012 .

[9]  C. Fox,et al.  Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental Measurement in the Human Sciences , 2001 .

[10]  D. Campbell.  Social Attitudes and Other Acquired Behavioral Dispositions. , 1963 .

[11]  J. Ehrich,et al.  Measuring students' perceptions of plagiarism: modification and Rasch validation of a plagiarism attitude scale. , 2014, Journal of applied measurement.

[12]  S. Embretson,et al.  Item response theory for psychologists , 2000 .

[13]  Blair T. Johnson,et al.  The Handbook of Attitudes , 2005 .

[14]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  Behavior-based environmental attitude : development of an instrument for adolescents , 2007 .

[15]  Attitudes and Defaults Save Lives and Protect the Environment Jointly and Compensatorily: Understanding the Behavioral Efficacy of Nudges and Other Structural Interventions , 2014, Behavioral sciences.

[16]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  Assessing general ecological behavior : a cross-cultural comparison between Switzerland and Sweden , 2000 .

[17]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1993 .

[18]  A. Tejada,et al.  Prejudiced Attitude Measurement Using the Rasch Rating Scale Model , 2011 .

[19]  Jon A. Krosnick,et al.  The Origins and Consequences of democratic citizens' Policy Agendas: A Study of Popular Concern about Global Warming , 2006 .

[20]  Carmen Tanner,et al.  CONSTRAINTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOUR , 1999 .

[21]  F. Kaiser,et al.  Appreciation of nature and appreciation of environmental protection: How stable are these attitudes and which comes first? , 2014 .

[22]  Mária Csutora,et al.  One More Awareness Gap? The Behaviour–Impact Gap Problem , 2012 .

[23]  L. Morton,et al.  Understanding Farmer Perspectives on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation , 2015, Environment and behavior.

[24]  Kelly S. Fielding,et al.  Meta-analyses of the determinants and outcomes of belief in climate change , 2016 .

[25]  Edward W. Wolfe.  Equating and item banking with the Rasch model. , 2000, Journal of applied measurement.

[26]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  Disclosing situational constraints to ecological behavior : a confirmatory application of the mixed Rasch model , 2001 .

[27]  F. Kaiser,et al.  The Campbell Paradigm as a Conceptual Alternative to the Expectation of Hypocrisy in Contemporary Attitude Research , 2015, The Journal of social psychology.

[28]  F. Kaiser,et al.  The search for potential origins of a favorable attitude toward nature , 2012 .

[29]  C. Kormos,et al.  The validity of self-report measures of proenvironmental behavior: A meta-analytic review , 2014 .

[30]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  Exploitative vs. appreciative use of nature – Two interpretations of utilization and their relevance for environmental education , 2014 .

[31]  F. Kaiser,et al.  Capturing the Environmental Impact of Individual Lifestyles: Evidence of the Criterion Validity of the General Ecological Behavior Scale , 2018 .

[32]  P. Wicker,et al.  Conscientious vs. ambivalent consumers: Do concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour?☆ , 2013 .

[33]  Mark Wilson,et al.  Constructing Measures: An Item Response Modeling Approach , 2004 .

[34]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Predicting and Changing Behavior: The Reasoned Action Approach , 2009 .

[35]  R. Schumacker,et al.  Rasch rating scale analysis of the Attitudes Toward Research Scale. , 2014, Journal of applied measurement.

[36]  G. Masters,et al.  Rating scale analysis , 1982 .

[37]  F. Kaiser,et al.  Environmental Protection and Nature as Distinct Attitudinal Objects , 2013 .

[38]  L. Jackson,et al.  Global and Local Concerns: What Attitudes and Beliefs Motivate Farmers to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change? , 2012, PloS one.

[39]  Nicholas Frank Pidgeon,et al.  Perceptions of climate change and willingness to save energy related to flood experience , 2011 .

[40]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  Assessing people's general ecological behavior: A cross-cultural measure , 2000 .

[41]  D. B. Strohmetz,et al.  Actions Can Speak as Loud as Words: Measuring Behavior in Psychological Science , 2009 .

[42]  Michael Andrew Ranney,et al.  Climate Change Conceptual Change: Scientific Information Can Transform Attitudes , 2016, Top. Cogn. Sci..

[43]  P. Stern,et al.  Influences on Attitude-Behavior Relationships , 1995 .

[44]  M. Siegrist,et al.  Addressing climate change: Determinants of consumers' willingness to act and to support policy measures , 2012 .

[45]  F. Kaiser,et al.  Health performance of individuals within the Campbell paradigm. , 2013, International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie.

[46]  F. Kaiser,et al.  Environmentalism as a trait: gauging people's prosocial personality in terms of environmental engagement. , 2011, International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie.

[47]  F. Kaiser,et al.  Reviving Campbell’s Paradigm for Attitude Research , 2010, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[48]  Anthony A Leiserowitz,et al.  American Risk Perceptions: Is Climate Change Dangerous? , 2005, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[49]  Florian G. Kaiser,et al.  Goal-directed conservation behavior: the specific composition of a general performance , 2004 .

[50]  B. Fischhoff,et al.  The role of social and decision sciences in communicating uncertain climate risks , 2011 .

[51]  R. J. Bord,et al.  Risk Perceptions, General Environmental Beliefs, and Willingness to Address Climate Change , 1999 .