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those holding values were different. Equally significantly, environmentalism was
found to be a stronger value than consumerism. This is surprisingly because it is
generally thought that consumerism is the more dominant of the two values. That
environmentalism is the stronger of the two values augurs well for efforts that focus
on ecologically sustainable development.
In terms of previous observations on the level of consistency with regard to
values and behavior, findings from past research are partially confirmed (e.g.,
Pierce et al.
1987
; Eckersley
1989
; Wall
1995
; Kanji and Nevitte
1997
; Tranter
1999
). Moreover, a clear link is apparent between consumerism and environmen-
talism and their environmental behaviors, confirming the relationship between
culture and behavior. Environmentalism was a clear determinant of environmen-
tally friendly behavior.
As mentioned above, previous research has identified young adults, women, and
politically active people as being most committed to environmentalism. A surprising
result from this study questions the significance of the materialist-postmaterialist
values thesis (e.g. Dunlap and Van Liere
1978, 1984
; Abramson and Inglehart
1995
) for explaining the link between environmentalism and environmental behav-
ior. Consumerism has only been empirically measured by Mullins et al. (
2004
),
and the consumerism scale constructed here showed this cultural imperative to be
most strongly held by the young, a finding that coincides with the postmaterialist
values thesis.
These values and behaviors provide grounds for both optimism and pessimism in
the achievement of ecologically sustainable development. The fact that environmen-
talism was found to be the stronger of the two values augurs well for the achieve-
ment of sustainable development. There was also a significant level of behavioral
consistency for those most involved in environmentally friendly behavior. However,
a significant group of those actively involved in environmentally friendly behavior
was older adults who had low monthly incomes, which necessarily restricted con-
sumption. With higher incomes, they most likely would increase consumption.
The explanatory powers of the predictor variables (environmentalism, consumer-
ism, environmental behavior) were not high. Even though there were statistically
significant relationships between the issues, the strength of the relationships was not
high. This means that the entire sustainable development mechanism is directly and
indirectly determined by many other variables in addition to the concepts of environ-
mentalism and consumerism. Thus, further research is necessary to empirically identify
those variables and to improve the level of empirical generalization on these issues.
References
Abramson P, Inglehart R (1995) Value change in global perspective. University of Michigan Press,
Ann Arbor
Bauman Z (1998) Work, consumerism, and the new poor. Open University Press, Buckingham
Beck U (1992) Risk society. Sage, London
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