Abstract
Exploring public perception and attitude about environmental issues is essential to promote ecological sustainability. The ecological worldview, as tapped by New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale, depicts an individual’s sensitivity toward the environment and further informs their consumption behavior. There is a paucity of research exploring the ecological worldview of Indian consumer segments and their socio-demographic characteristics. In this study, an online cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 1858 Indian adults, and ecological worldview was assessed using NEP Scale. A combination approach of clustering was employed to find consumer segments distinguishable in terms of ecological attitude following dimensional analysis of the NEP Scale using principal component analysis. Socio-demographic predictors of ecological worldview were identified using multiple linear regression. Indian adults endorsed a pro-ecological worldview with a mean NEP score of 3.45. NEP Scale tapped three dimensions of ecological worldview among the Indian sub-sample instead of five, which were “Environmental concern,” “Humans over nature,” and “Limits of earth.” “Ecologically conscious,” “Conscious anthropocentric,” and “Ecologically sensitive” were three identified segments endorsing facets of ecological worldview to a varying degree. Education, occupation, religion, caste, number of children or adolescents in a family, family type, house location, and residential zone were significant predictors of pro-ecological worldview among Indian adults. Thus, the worldview of Indian adults was inspired by the New Ecological Paradigm. Environmental sustainability must be emphasized from earlier years of education with women in policymaking. Policy framework to promote environmental awareness and ecological sensitivity must consider the socio-demographic characteristics of various population segments.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the submitted paper. The spreadsheet with raw data is available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Andersson, L., Shivarajan, S., & Blau, G. (2005). Enacting ecological sustainability in the MNC: A test of an adapted value-belief-norm framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(3), 295–305.
Asvatourian, V., Craig, T., Horgan, G. W., Kyle, J., & Macdiarmid, J. I. (2018). Relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour and dietary intake patterns. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 16, 216–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2018.08.009
Atav, E., Altunoğlu, B. D., & Sönmez, S. (2015). The Determination of the Environmental Attitudes of Secondary Education Students. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 1391–1396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.765
Buttel, F. H., & Flinn, W. L. (1978). Social class and mass environmental beliefs: A Reconsideration. Environment and Behavior, 10(3), 433–450. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916578103008
Choi, A. S., & Fielding, K. S. (2013). Environmental attitudes as WTP predictors: A case study involving endangered species. Ecological Economics, 89, 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.01.027
Chung, S. S., & Poon, C. S. (2001). A comparison of waste-reduction practices and new environmental paradigm of rural and urban Chinese citizens. Journal of Environmental Management, 62(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1006/jema.2000.0408
Dancey, C. P., & Reidy, J. (2020). Introduction to factor analysis. In Statistics without Maths for Psychology (8th ed., pp. 447–478). Pearson Education Limited.
Day, J. (2008). The Characteristics of Pro-Environmental Urban Tourists: A Market Segmentation Study Based on the New Ecological Paradigm [Master’s Thesis, Modul University]. https://www.modul.ac.at/uploads/files/Theses/Master/MBA_2018/1402007_Jenny_Day_MBA_Master_s_FINAL_Thesis.pdf
Denis, H. D., & Pereira, L. N. (2014). Measuring the level of endorsement of the New Environmental Paradigm: A transnational study. Dos Algarves: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal, 23, 1–26.
Diamantopoulos, A., Schlegelmilch, B. B., Sinkovics, R. R., & Bohlen, G. M. (2003). Can socio-demographics still play a role in profiling green consumers? A review of the evidence and an empirical investigation. Journal of Business Research, 56(6), 465-480. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(01)00241-7
Dixon, J. K. (2013). Exploratory factor analysis. In S. B. Plichta & E. A. Kelvin (Eds.), Munro’s statistical methods for health care research 6 end (pp. 371–398). Wolters Kluwer Health.
Dolnicar, S. (2002). A review of data-driven market segmentation in tourism. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1300/J073v12n01_01
Dunlap, R. E., & Van Liere, K. D. (1978). The “New Environmental Paradigm.” The Journal of Environmental Education, 9(4), 10–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.1978.10801875
Dunlap, R. E., Van Liere, K. D., Mertig, A. G., & Emmet Jones, R. (2000). Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 425–442. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00176
Elwell, N., & Williams, Y. (2016, March 7). If You Care About the Environment, You Should Care About Gender. World Resources Institute. Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.wri.org/insights/if-you-care-about-environment-you-should-care-about-gender
Emodi, S., & Hergenrader, M. (2014). Religion and Environmental Worldviews [Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Theses, University of Nebraska]. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/envstudtheses/159
Erdoğan, N. (2009). Testing the new ecological paradigm scale: Turkish case. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 4(10), 1023–1031.
Field, A. (2018). The Linear Model (Regression). In Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics (5th ed., pp. 370–579). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Ford, J. K., MacCallum, R. C., & Tait, M. (1986). The application of exploratory factor analysis in applied psychology: a critical review and analysis. Personnel Psychology, 39(2), 291–314. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1986.tb00583.x
Formica, S., & Uysal, M. (2001). Segmentation of travelers based on environmental attitudes. Journal of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing, 9(3–4), 35–49. https://doi.org/10.1300/J150v09n03_04
Gomera-Martínez, A., Villamandos de la Torre, F., & Vaquero-Abellán, M. (2013). Construction of indicators of environmental beliefs from the NEP scale. Acción Psicológica, 10(1), 149–160. https://doi.org/10.5944/ap.10.1.7041
Gray, A. J. (2011). Worldviews. International Psychiatry, 8(3), 58–60. https://doi.org/10.1192/S1749367600002563
Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679190202
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Cluster Analysis. In Multivariate Data Analysis (8th edn., pp. 189–255). Cengage Learning EMEA.
Halkos, G., & Matsiori, S. (2017). Environmental attitude, motivations and values for marine biodiversity protection. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 69, 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2017.05.009
Harraway, J., Broughton-Ansin, F., Deaker, L., Jowett, T., & Shephard, K. (2012). Exploring the use of the revised new ecological paradigm scale (NEP) to monitor the development of students’ ecological worldviews. The Journal of Environmental Education, 43(3), 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2011.634450
Hawcroft, L. J., & Milfont, T. L. (2010). The use (and abuse) of the new environmental paradigm scale over the last 30 years: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30(2), 143–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.10.003
Hofmeister-Toth, A., Kelemen, K., & Piskóti, M. (2012). Segmentation of the Hungarian consumers using the new ecological paradigm (NEP) scale. Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 13(1), 21–41. https://doi.org/10.1504/IER.2012.046098
Hope, A. L. B., & Jones, C. R. (2014). The impact of religious faith on attitudes to environmental issues and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies: A mixed methods study. Technology in Society, 38, 48–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2014.02.003
Hosseinnezhad, F. (2017). A Study of the new environmental paradigm scale in the context of Iran. European Journal of Sustainable Development Research, 1(2), 14. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejosdr.201714
Jain, S. K., & Kaur, G. (2004). Green marketing: An attitudinal and behavioural analysis of Indian consumers. Global Business Review, 5(2), 187–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/097215090400500203
Janakiraman, S. (2021). Games in environmental sustainability education. Purdue University. Retrieved from 28 March 2022, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=instemed
Jones, R. E., & Dunlap, R. E. (1992). The social bases of environmental concern: Have they changed over time? Rural Sociology, 57(1), 28–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.1992.tb00455.x
Juvan, E., & Dolnicar, S. (2014). The attitude–behaviour gap in sustainable tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 48, 76–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2014.05.012
Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20(1), 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000116
Khan, A., Khan, M. N., & Adil, Mohd. (2012). Exploring the new ecological paradigm (NEP) scale in India: Item analysis, factor structure and refinement. Asia-Pacific Journal of Management Research and Innovation, 8(4), 389–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/2319510X13477966
Kim, H., Borges, M. C., & Chon, J. (2006). Impacts of environmental values on tourism motivation: The case of FICA, Brazil. Tourism Management, 27(5), 957–967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2005.09.007
Kotchen, M. J., & Reiling, S. D. (2000). Environmental attitudes, motivations, and contingent valuation of nonuse values: A case study involving endangered species. Ecological Economics, 32(1), 93–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(99)00069-5
La Trobe, H. L., & Acott, T. G. (2000). A modified NEP/DSP environmental attitudes scale. The Journal of Environmental Education, 32(1), 12–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958960009598667
Labour Bureau, Government of India. (2022, March 31). Index Numbers. Retrieved from 4 April 2022. http://labourbureau.gov.in/LBO_indnum.htm
Luo, Y., & Deng, J. (2008). The new environmental paradigm and nature-based tourism motivation. Journal of Travel Research, 46(4), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287507308331
Malhotra, N. K., Nunan, D., & Birks, D. (2017). Cluster analysis. In Marketing research: An applied approach (5th edn, pp. 735–761). Pearson Education Limited.
Matt.0. (2019, January 28). 10 Tips for Choosing the Optimal Number of Clusters. Towards Data Science. Retrieved from 22 March 2022. https://towardsdatascience.com/10-tips-for-choosing-the-optimal-number-of-clusters-277e93d72d92
Milfont, T. L., & Markowitz, E. (2016). Sustainable consumer behavior: A multilevel perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.12.016
Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. (2022, March 17). Zonal Council. Retrieved from 22 March 2022. https://www.mha.gov.in/zonal-council
Mistry, J., Jafferally, D., Ingwall-King, L., & Mendonca, S. (2020). Indigenous knowledge. In A. Kobayashi (Ed.), International encyclopedia of human geography (2nd ed., pp. 211–215). Elsevier.
Morrison, D. E., Hornback, K. E., & Warner, W. K. (1972). The environmental movement: Some preliminary observations and predictions. In W. R. Burch, N. H. Cheek, & L. Taylor (Eds.), Social behavior, natural resources and the environment (pp. 259–279). Harper and Row.
Moyano-Diaz, E., & Palomo-Vélez, G. (2014). Propiedades Psicométricas de la Escala Nuevo Paradigma Ecológico (NEP-R) en Población Chilena [Psychometric properties of the New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP-R) in Chilean population]. PSICO, 45(3), 415–423. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2014.3.17276
Noblet, C. L., Anderson, M., & Teisl, M. F. (2013). An empirical test of anchoring the NEP scale in environmental ethics. Environmental Education Research, 19(4), 540–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2012.704899
Ntanos, S., Kyriakopoulos, G., Skordoulis, M., Chalikias, M., & Arabatzis, G. (2019). An application of the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale in a Greek context. Energies, 12(2), 239. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12020239
Ogunbode, C. A. (2013). The NEP scale: Measuring ecological attitudes/worldviews in an African context. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15(6), 1477–1494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-013-9446-0
Pienaar, E. F., Lew, D. K., & Wallmo, K. (2015). The importance of survey content: Testing for the context dependency of the new ecological paradigm scale. Social Science Research, 51, 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.09.005
Pierce, J. C., Lovrich, N. P., Jr., Tsurutani, T., & Abe, T. (2015). Culture, politics and mass publics: Traditional and modern supporters of the new environmental paradigm In Japan and the United States. The Journal of Politics, 49(1), 54–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/2131134
Prasad, B. G. (1961). Social classification of Indian families. Journal of Indian Medical Association, 37, 250–251.
Reyna, C., Bressán, E., Mola, D., Belaus, A., & Ortiz, M. V. (2018). Validating the structure of the new ecological paradigm scale among argentine citizens through different approaches. Pensamiento Psicológico, 16(1), 107–118. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javerianacali.PPSI16-1.vsn
Rideout, B. E., Hushen, K., McGinty, D., Perkins, S., & Tate, J. (2005). Endorsement of the new ecological paradigm in systematic and E-mail samples of college students. The Journal of Environmental Education, 36(2), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOEE.36.2.15-23
Schultz, P. W., Gouveia, V. V., Cameron, L. D., Tankha, G., Schmuck, P., & Franěk, M. (2005). Values and their relationship to environmental concern and conservation behavior. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(4), 457–475. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022105275962
Singh, N., & Gupta, K. (2013). Environmental attitude and ecological behaviour of Indian consumers. Social Responsibility Journal, 9(1), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/17471111311307787
Sudbury-Riley, L., Hofmeister-Toth, A., & Kohlbacher, F. (2014). A cross-national study of the ecological worldview of senior consumers. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 38(5), 500–509. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12126
The jamovi project. (2021). jamovi (Version 2.2) [Computer software]. https://www.jamovi.org
Thomas, G. O., Fisher, R., Whitmarsh, L., Milfont, T. L., & Poortinga, W. (2018). The impact of parenthood on environmental attitudes and behaviour: A longitudinal investigation of the legacy hypothesis. Population and Environment, 39(3), 261–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-017-0291-1
United Nations. (2022). Sustainable consumption and production. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from 2 April 2022. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1). United Nations.
Ursachi, G., Horodnic, I. A., & Zait, A. (2015). How Reliable are measurement scales? External factors with indirect influence on reliability estimators. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20, 679–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00123-9
Van Liere, K. D., & Dunlap, R. E. (1980). The social bases of environmental concern: A review of hypotheses, explanation and empirical evidence. Public Opinion Quarterly, 44, 181–199.
Van Petegem, P., & Blieck, A. (2006). The environmental worldview of children: A cross-cultural perspective. Environmental Education Research, 12(5), 625–635. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620601053662
Waltz, C. F., Strickland, O. L., & Lenz, E. R. (2010). Measurement Reliability. In Measurement in Nursing and Health Research (4th edn., pp. 145–162). Springer Publishing Company.
Watson, K., & Halse, C. M. (2005). Environmental attitudes of pre-service teachers: A conceptual and methodological dilemma in cross-cultural data collection. Asia Pacific Education Review, 6(1), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03024968
Wiernik, B. M., Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S. (2016). Age and employee green behaviors: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 194. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00194
Williams, O. D. (2006). Basic biostatistics: concepts and tools. In R. Bonita, R. Beaglehole, & T. Kjellström (Eds.), Basic epidemiology (2nd ed., pp. 63–82). World Health Organization.
Zografos, C., & Allcroft, D. (2007). The environmental values of potential ecotourists: A segmentation study. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 15(1), 44–66. https://doi.org/10.2167/jost572.0
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the study participants for their cooperation.
Funding
The University Grants Commission supported this work through the Senior Research Fellowship to the first author [UGC Ref. No.: 1499/(NET-JULY 2018)].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
NJ: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing- Original Draft, Writing- Review & Editing. RSR: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Review & Editing, Supervision. AD: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Review & Editing, Supervision. NJ, RSR, and AD reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
University Ethics Committee for Human Research (UECHR) of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, approved the study (Approval No. CHS/Ethical Comm/319).
Consent to participate
Electronic informed consent was obtained from all the respondents indicating their willingness to participate.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Joshi, N., Raghuvanshi, R.S. & Dutta, A. Who has a Pro-Ecological Worldview among educated Indian adults with internet access, and what are the influencing factors?. Environ Dev Sustain 26, 1903–1938 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02791-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02791-9