Researchers from BIODIFUL, Fanny Lalot, Sanna Ahvenharju, and Outi Uusitalo have recently published a scientific article in the prestigious journal British Journal of Social Psychology. The article titled “Green dreams are made of this: Futures consciousness and proenvironmental engagement” examines the impact of futures consciousness and proenvironmental behaviour on personal environmental footprint.
The analysis based on two survey datasets (Survey 1: a sample of students from Switzerland, N=241; Survey 2: a sample of Finnish consumers, N=800; a total of N=1041) showed that respondents with higher futures consciousness reported engaging more in proenvironmental behaviour (e.g., consumption behaviour, land stewardship, social environmentalism and environmental citizenship) compared to those with lower futures consciousness. The futures consciousness measurement tool used in the study better proves that future-oriented thinking plays a crucial role in proenvironmental behaviour.
Surprisingly, neither high future consciousness nor self-reported proenvironmental behaviour correlated with the personal environmental footprint results. The researchers suggest that it is possible that the survey results reflect respondents’ desires for self-perception (self-assessment bias). A more likely interpretation is that the personal environmental footprint measures different behaviour than the proenvironmental behavior scale used in the survey. Personal environmental footprint metric focuses on measuring personal consumption behaviour and its direct impacts, while the proenvironmental behaviour scale focuses on measuring a tendency towards environmental friendliness, which particularly manifests in social behaviour and support for systemic change. Furthermore, the study confirmed the previously noted observation that higher-income respondents report acting more proenvironmentally than lower-income respondents. Nevertheless, higher-income respondents had a larger personal environmental footprint than lower-income respondents. The study has been published openly and is accessible here.