The prediction of ecological and environmental belief systems: The differential contributions of social conservatism and beliefs about money

The environment and the economy are two of the most pertinent issues of soc iety and are increasingly perceived as inter-relate, highlighting the signi ficance of understanding how the issues may be held in cognition. This stud y looks at the structure of personal beliefs systems to investigate how the social cognitions of the individual might be applicable to political and e conomic issues. Tn particular, the research explores the possibility of a p redictive relationship between individual beliefs about money and social co nservatism and beliefs about the environment and ecology. A questionnaire-b ased study employing four measures was conducted with 399 university studen ts. Findings suggest that ecology and environmentalism may be fundamentally different from one another as reflected by the contribution of different v ariables in the prediction of scale scores, Results provide support for the hypothesis that ecological beliefs and environmental attitudes exist as se parable cognitive structures. (C) 2000 Academic Press.