In response to the rapidly growing global environmental problems many call for changes in how individuals should deal with the environment. An important aspect of moving towards an environmentally sustainable world is to promote pro-environmental consumer behavior. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to conduct a literature review to identify social and psychological factors that influence environmental behavior and use these as a basis for an empirical study in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for analyzing current behavioral patterns between population groups. The findings suggest that willingness to sacrifice for the environment, perceived behavioral control of environmental problems and the feeling of responsibility of environmental problems are significantly positively related to environmental behavior in Abu Dhabi. It was evaluated that younger age groups, very low and very high income groups, people from developing nations and low education groups are performing worse in environmental behavior than older age groups, middle income groups, people from developed nations and high education groups. Furthermore, it was concluded that the general level of environmental behavior is low. This is ascribed to a lack of facilities supporting environmental behavior in Abu Dhabi, and a lack of environmental values in the country. Policies aimed at promoting environmental behavior should aim at changing the attitudes and values regarding the environment of the society. Such policies should be tailored for specific population segments.

Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, die Frage nach der Relation zwischen Umwelteinstellungen und umweltgerechtem Verhalten zu beantworten. Hierzu wird ein deduktiver, theoretischer Zugang gewählt. Es werden unterschiedliche theoretische Perspektiven, die sich in der Umweltforschung etabliert haben, vergleichend betrachtet und analysiert: die Umweltbewusstseinsforschung, die Risikoforschung, die Werteforschung und der Rational-Choice-Ansatz, wobei die beiden letztgenannten Theorieansätze in je zwei unterschiedlichen Varianten berücksichtigt werden. Die einzelnen Erklärungsansätze stehen bisher weitgehend isoliert nebeneinander, es fehlt eine explizite systematische theorievergleichende Perspektive, die versucht, den Bewährungsgrad und die Leistungsfähigkeit der dominierenden Ansätze des Forschungsfeldes empirisch zu untersuchen und zu vergleichen. Ein solcher Vergleich wird in der vorliegenden Untersuchung durchgeführt. In der vorliegenden Studie wird neben dieser theorievergleichenden Strategie zusätzlich auch eine kulturvergleichende Strategie verfolgt. Zum einen weil die Umweltproblematik in Zeiten der Globalisierung ein internationales Problem ist. Zum anderen ist die Validierung der verschiedenen Theorien in verschiedenen kulturellen Settings ein wichtiger Weg der Theorieprüfung.

This thesis offers a case study analysis of the food waste in schools focusing on the pupils’ knowledge of foodwaste issues. The thesis uses a project initiated by the municipality of Uppsala which aims at reducing theamount of food wasted in the schools restaurants as a case study. The knowledge of food waste issues frompupils of Uppsala has been assessed with questionnaires. The amount of pupil’s food waste generation is alsoshown in the thesis. At first it is seen that older pupils waste more than younger ones. Looking at theirknowledge, pupils in general ignore the environmental and ethical consequences of food waste but are aware ofthe economic consequences. The current food waste reduction project implemented by the municipality ofUppsala seems to work only for the schools where the pupils are aware of the incentive in place. This incentiveaims to reward the pupils from the schools which reduce their food waste other time. The results obtained fromthe questionnaires, the results from current food waste reduction project and the interviews (with the person incharge of the food waste reduction project and a kitchen staff) are analyzed through a theoretical frameworkbased on environmentally significant behavior theory. Later, suggestions are made in order to improve thecurrent project. For instance, it is advised to review the current incentive depending on the schools by working incooperation with the schools and the pupils. Also, the pupils need to obtain a better basic understanding of foodwaste issues through instruction in formal and informal ways. The project itself could be reviewed in order tobetter integrate the pupils’ opinions and their degree of understanding of the food waste issues but also tocooperate more with the different stakeholders in the project.

Dans un contexte de préoccupation croissante pour le défi environnemental, l'objectif de cette thèse est d'apporter quelques pistes de réflexion sur les liens entre incitations et les préférences sociales dans un contexte de choix impliquant des conséquences environnementales. Le chapitre 1 constitue une introduction générale au contexte de notre _étude. Le chapitre 2 vise à fournir un aperçu de la recherche expérimentale étudiant le comportement environnemental dans les disciplines de l'_économie et la psychologie expérimentales. Grâce à un inventaire thématique bibliographique des expériences publiées, nous indentions les principaux déterminants du comportement pro-environnemental et nous décrivons l'évolution de ces études au fil du temps. Le chapitre 3 adapte un jeu de bien public (PGG) à la question de la gestion des déchets. Poursuivant le but de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, les décideurs conçoivent différents types d'incitations pour agir sur les comportements individuels. Dans notre expérience, les acteurs doivent coopérer afin de réduire le coût du traitement du tri des déchets, ce dernier modélisé au moyen d'un taux d'imposition variable. Les résultats montrent que le conseil, la sanction et la menace de sanction augmentent considérablement la coopération, avec un effet disciplinant plus fort pour la sanction. Le chapitre 4 considère la nature de l'expression des préférences des individus. Ce chapitre étudie la relation entre les préférences sociales et la contribution attentionnelle dans un environnement pro-social. A cette fin, nous présentons une nouvelle expérience où les sujets investissent une réelle attention pour exprimer leurs préférences, puis nous comparons une incitation du type égoïste à une autre pro-sociale. Les résultats montrent que les deux incitations augmentent l'attention accordée. De plus, contrairement aux enseignements de la théorie économique standard, nous trouvons que les préférences sociales des sujets n'expliquent pas la contribution attentionnelle dans un environnement pro-social. / In the context of growing concern for the environmental challenge, the objective of this thesis is to bring some insights on possible links between incentives, social preferences and the environmental context. Chapter 1 is a general introduction. Chapter 2 provides a survey of the experimental research disciplines studying Pro-Environmental Behavior both in the discipline of Economics and Psychology. Thanks to a thematic inventory of the published experiments, we identify the main determinants of Pro-Environmental Behaviors investigated in economics and psychology. Moreover, we provide a statistical description of studies evolution in time. Chapter 3 adapts a public good game to waste management issue. In the context of greenhouse gases emissions reduction, policy makers design different types of incentives to act on individual behaviors. In the experiment, the players have to cooperate in order to reduce the cost of waste sorting treatment. We compare the impact of a sanctioning tax with the impact of a nudge in the form of a third party advice. Results show that advice, sanction and the threat of sanction significantly increase cooperation, with a stronger disciplinary effect for the applied sanction. Chapter 4 considers the nature of individuals' preferences expression, namely a monetary salient effort and an attentional effort. In this chapter we investigate the relation between social preferences and attentional contribution in a pro-social environment. For this purpose, we present a new experiment where subjects have to invest real attention, then we compare a selfish and prosocial incentives. The results show that both incentives increase allocated attention. Moreover, in contradiction with economic theory, we find that subjects' social preferences failed to explain attentional contribution in pro-social environments.

The built environment can inadvertently create obstacles for human cognition, emotion, and behavior when ill-designed, neglected, or poorly retrofitted. Deteriorating education facilities exemplify the lack of awareness in regard to the significant relationship between people and their environments. However, simply updating a school does not always accommodate occupant needs, especially for students who are sensitive to external stimuli. Students in behavioral schools who suffer from emotional behavioral disorder (EBD) often display adverse neurological affects from negative life experiences. Common disorders comorbid with EBD, as well as EBD itself, interferes with their ability to control and manage behavior. By identifying common challenges, the proposed behavioral school in Northampton, Massachusetts aims to support the building’s program and occupants to achieve specific goals, i.e. academic standards, and behavioral self-management. Environmental-behavior and neuropsychology principles are implemented in overarching themes including biophilic design, behavior defined space, safety, and transitions. Strategic design elements aim to assist students relearning behavior by clearly defining which behaviors are acceptable in specific spaces within the school and by addressing common cognitions and emotions often associated with the negative behavior. These implementations range from broad environmental-behavioral-neurology principles that manifest themselves in the built environment to address place, personalization, territory, and wayfinding, down to smaller details, including strategically framed exterior views. Unlike traditional day schools, this demographic is tasked with the extremely difficult goal to restructure their consciousness from the inside out, in addition to the baseline academic requirements. As the largest physical teaching tool, the school itself assists the sensitive students and hardworking staff in their transitional journey.

No description available.

No description available.

By consciously re-crafting K-12 American public schools through aesthetic design, the United States can improve civic education. Specifically, by paying attention to how school environments affect students through each of their five senses, Americans can create learning environments that encourage the development of civic virtues necessary to support four essential criteria identified by John Dewey as foundational for an ideal democracy: individual expression, communicated experience, associated living, and consciousness of the connection between individuals, their behaviors, and their choices. By examining Dewey’s theory of ideal democracy, and the civic virtues that it requires, I delineate and analyze specific criteria by which to improve American civic education in public schools. Then I show that creating beautiful schools can meet the specified criteria and develop civic virtues in students. These virtues are necessary – although not by themselves sufficient – for healthy democratic citizenship. America today is far from an ideal democracy. Split in our beliefs, unengaged in the civic process, disconnected from fellow citizens, and often unaware of the harm caused by our lack of participation, care, and responsibility, we have a long way to go before our democracy approaches the ideal form proposed by Dewey. Far from deterring our efforts, however, these facts should motivate us to find new and improved ways to educate our young citizens during their years in public schooling. This thesis aims to convince the reader that the conscious crafting of school aesthetics can provide a unique and irreplaceable contribution to that end. / text

The purpose of this study is to examine if the experience of whale watching can lead to increased knowledge of environmental problems. We also want to find out whether increased knowledge in turn could lead to changing environmental attitudes and behaviors. The theoretical framework consists of theories about sustainable tourism, ecotourism and responsible environmental behavior. The paper also has a section where previous research on ecotourism impacts on behavior and attitudes is discussed and subsequently addressed in the analysis section. Data has been collected through a case study where seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who participated in whale watching. The results show that all respondents had greater knowledge of whales by their experiences, the degree of knowledge was due to respondents' prior knowledge. The respondents did not consider their attitude towards environmental issues has changed considerably by the experience or that it affected their environmental behavior. A number of conclusions were drawn from analysis of empirical data using the selected theories. It seems that it is easier to give people knowledge than to influence them to change their attitudes and it is particularly difficult to say whether the experience of a single ecotourism experience may impact deeply ingrained attitudes and behaviors. Overall, the results suggest that ecotourism experiences to some extent leads to the strengthening of participants' environmental awareness and thus increase their interest in participating in further ecotourism experiences. Through these circular effects, an increased environmental knowledge provided by ecotourism experiences in the longer term can help to develop more responsible environmental attitudes and behavior of individuals. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om upplevelsen av valskådning kan leda till ökad kunskap om miljöproblem. Vi vill också ta reda på om ökad kunskap i sin tur kan leda till förändrade miljömässiga attityder och beteenden. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk utgörs av teorier kring hållbar turism, ekoturism och ansvarsfullt miljömässigt beteende. Uppsatsen har även ett avsnitt där tidigare forskning kring ekoturismens inverkan på beteende och attityder diskuteras för att därefter behandlas i analysdelen. Uppsatsens empiri har samlats in genom en kvalitativ studie där sju semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med individer som deltagit i valskådning. Resultaten visar att samtliga respondenter fick ökad kunskap om valar av sina upplevelser, hur hög grad av kunskap berodde dock på respondenternas förkunskap. Respondenterna ansåg inte att deras attityder gentemot miljöfrågor förändrats avsevärt av upplevelsen eller att det påverkat deras miljömässiga beteende. Ett antal slutsatser har dragits utifrån analys av empiri med hjälp av valda teorier. Det verkar som att det är lättare att ge människor kunskap än att påverka dem att ändra sina attityder och det är särskilt svårt att säga om erfarenhet av en enda ekoturistisk upplevelse kan ha effekt på djupt inrotade attityder och beteenden. Sammantaget tyder resultaten på att ekoturistiska erfarenheter till viss del leder till att förstärka deltagarnas miljömedvetenhet och därmed också öka deras intresse för att delta i ytterligare ekoturistiska upplevelser. Genom dessa cirkulära effekter kan ökad miljökunskap som tillhandahålls genom ekoturistiska upplevelser i ett längre perspektiv bidra till att utveckla mer ansvarsfulla miljömässiga attityder och beteenden hos individer.

This thesis examines whether or not differences in people’s water conservation attitudes, political party orientation, severity of drought, and attention to drought news affect their engagement in water conservation behavior during a time of continued water shortage. Previously, it has been found that attitudes are predictive of intentions that relate to behaviors (e.g., Dietz et al. 2005). Democrats have been shown to be more pro-environmental then Republicans (e.g., Dunlap et al. 2000). It has also been found that severity of drought is positively related with environmental concern (e.g., Accury and Christianson 1990), and access to news information is directly related to willingness to take action (e.g., Johnson and Scicchitano 2000). However, during a time of drought, what is the relationship between individual water conservation attitudes and behaviors? Do conventional understandings of political party orientation and water conservation behaviors hold during a time of drought? Do those living in counties that experience more severe drought engage in more water conservation behaviors? Do those who pay more attention to drought news engage in more water conservation behaviors? Using data from Georgia’s 2007 Peach State Poll, I explore the answers to these questions. I examine how water conservation attitudes (Model 1), political party orientation (Model 2), drought severity (Model 3), attention to drought news (Model 4), sociodemographics, controls, and other factors from models 1-4 (Model 5) influenced water conservation behavior during the 2007 Georgia drought. Results indicate that differences in people’s water conservation attitudes, political party orientation, drought severity, and attention to drought news did not significantly affect their water conservation behavior during the 2007 drought. However, race, class, and gender variables in the full model did have a significant effect, which seems to suggest that one’s location in the social stratification system affects their opportunities to engage in water conservation behavior. Therefore, environmental policy issues should not be considered apart from social issues. The fundamental theoretical significance of the following research is that we affect and are in turn affected by the biophysical world in a dialectic fashion. Recognizing the quality, quantity, and interrelatedness of nature-society relationships is essential for future research.