Understanding citizens' environmental concern and their pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes and their influence on energy use

The analysis of the prime political ideologies that affect human behaviours and how these make people interact with their habitat is most necessary for policy making. The objective of the present research is to analyse the relationship between an individual's political ideology and his/her environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes, and how these last two influences on pro-electrical consumption attitudes. To achieve the objective, we based the research on information from two surveys effectuated two years apart. A total of 3,395 household heads were interviewed (84.5% from 2019 and 15.5% from 2021). Four hypotheses were launched and only one validated through our study which proved the relationship between environmental concern and pro-electrical consumption attitudes. However, the study additionally shows a gradual decrease in environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes from centre ideology to the extreme left and right, being the values of the left-wing (extreme left and left-centre) higher than those of the right-wing (extreme right and right-centre). Additionally, a strong influence of environmental concern in pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes was found, meaning that environmental knowledge is necessary to develop greener attitudes and behaviours. These results shed light on citizens environmental policy preferences, making clear the discussion about the effects of political ideology on pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between an individual's political ideology and their environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes, and how these factors influence pro-electrical consumption attitudes. The study found a relationship between environmental concern and pro-electrical consumption attitudes, as well as a gradual decrease in concern and pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes from center ideology to extreme left and right. Additionally, environmental concern was found to strongly influence pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes.