Perspectives on the environment among social science students in former socialist and Western societies

This is a study on differences between national samples on optimism‐pessimism on the environment. 755 undergraduate students in social science from the U.S.A., Bulgaria, Hungary, and Norway responded to a survey. 29% were male, 70% female, with a mean age of 22.83. Results yielded highly significant differences with respondents from former “socialist” societies scoring significantly higher on environmental pessimism.

Key words:

• Environment
• “Socialist” societies
• Western societies
• students