The Negative Associations Between Materialism and Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors: Individual and Regional Evidence From China

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that materialism is related to environmentalism, but unstable findings still exist. To clarify the relationships between materialism and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, the present study addressed some methodological issues and provided both individual- and regional-level evidence from China. Using data from the World Value Survey and the Chinese General Social Survey, we observed that materialism was negatively associated with pro-environmental attitudes (Study 1, n = 2,300; Study 2, n = 3,672) and pro-environmental behaviors (Study 2). Moreover, we found that pro-environmental attitudes partially mediated the association between materialism and pro-environmental behaviors in Study 2. We further searched for additional regional evidence in Study 3, and we found that the more materialistic regions are, the more energy is consumed. Results indicate that materialism is associated with decreases in pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings.