VALUES, BELIEFS, AND PROENVIRONMENTAL ACTION - ATTITUDE FORMATION TOWARD EMERGENT ATTITUDE OBJECTS

Discoveries in environmental science become the raw material for const ructing social attitude objects, individual attitudes, and broad publi c concerns. We explored a model in which individuals construct attitud es to new or emergent attitude objects by referencing personal values acid beliefs about the consequences of the objects for their values. W e found that a subset of the major clusters identified in value theory is associated with willingness to take proenvironmental action; that a biospheric value orientation cannot yet be discerned in a general po pulation sample; that willingness to take proenvironmental action is a function of both values and beliefs, with values also predicting beli efs; and that gender differences can be attributed to both beliefs and values. Our model has promise for explicating the factors determining public concern with environmental conditions.