Predicting environmentally-friendly behavior: does political ideology affect willingness to change behavior to help improve the environment?

Thesis (M.P.P.A., Public Policy and Administration)--California State University, Sacramento, 2012.Scientists and researchers argue that overconsumption of resources and continued pollution from human activities have created a variety of environmental problems including deforestation, loss of biodiversity, changes in climate, loss of open space, poor water quality, and poor air quality (Vitousek, 1993, Gershon, 2009). Solving these problems is going to require that people practice environmentally-friendly behaviors such as recycling, driving less, conserving water and conserving land. I use regression analysis to examine people???s willingness to change some of the things they do to help improve the environment with a focus on the influence of political ideology.\ud The data used in this thesis is from the ABC News/Stanford University/Washington Post Survey on Global Warming conducted in April of 2007. ABC News, Stanford University, and Washington Post conducted the survey of 1,002 United States residents via phone interviews through random-digit dialing.\ud After controlling for knowledge and attitudes about the environment, demographic characteristics, support for environmental policy, and recycling law being required in the community, multiple regression analysis results show that political ideology is not a significant predictor of how willing people are to change some of the things they do to help improve the environment. Instead, I found that the more people think something can be done to reduce future global warming the more willing people are to change their behavior to help improve the environment. The other variables that turned out to be significant predictors of willingness to change behavior include being Hispanic, having kids under the age of 18 living at home, and favoring a gas tax as a way to reduce future global warming.Public Policy and Administratio