Ecocentrist and anthropocentrist attitudes in developing and developed countries

Abstract

This research explains what and how contextual wealth factors condition the influence of individual wealth factors on environmental attitudes in developing countries compared to developed ones. This work considers aspects of two types of attitudes, ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. The first type deems environmental protection important because nature is intrinsically valuable, while the second considers nature valuable for its utilitarian function to humans. Given that the physical proximity of human residence to environmental issues is one aspect that determines the type of attitude, and that certain national contexts are more likely to be plagued with immediate environmental problems (e.g., poor sewage and sanitation quality), individual attitudes of anthropocentrism and ecocentrism will prevail differently according to the individual’s national context. Explicitly, I argue that individual wealth positively predicts ecocentrist attitudes, and that this effect is stronger among developed-country residents, relative to residents in developing countries. On the other hand, individual wealth has a negative effect on anthropocentrist attitudes; thus, this effect is expected to be stronger among developing-country residents, relative to developed-country residents. To examine these theoretical expectations, this study uses survey data, in over thirty countries, from the World Value survey 2005-2009. The empirical analyses use standard and multilevel logistic regression modelling to assess the theoretical arguments just mentioned.

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ORCID for William Jennings: orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-8896

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