“My Husband Usually Makes Those Decisions”: Gender, Behavior, and Attitudes Toward the Marine Environment

Human behavior impacts the environment we live in. In order to better understand how one group, boat owners, in three Nordic countries adjacent to the Baltic Sea; Sweden, Finland and Denmark, viewed the relationship between the marine environment, leisure boats and issues of responsibility, a survey study was conducted (n = 1701). The results show that there are differences between gender in many areas and those women in general are more environmentally friendly than men in their views and behavior. Men and women seek information about boating by different channels and this knowledge may be used in future information campaigns. Both men and women ranked boat owners as having the lowest impact on the marine environment and perceived these to be responsible for addressing environmental issues caused by leisure boat activities. The results also show that it is important to prove the effectiveness of an environmentally safe product since this factor is ranked higher than price when considering buying a product. The results suggest that once environmentally friendly behavior is established, such as recycling, this behavior continues. One implication of this study is that small changes in human behavior are seen as acceptable but larger commitments are more difficult to achieve. If individuals do not feel responsible for causing environmental damage, this aspect needs to be addressed in information aimed at this group. Novel approaches on framing the information and new ways of disseminating information are needed.