“Not All Environmentalists Are Like That … ”: Unpacking the Negative and Positive Beliefs and Perceptions of Environmentalists

ABSTRACT

Limited research to date has qualitatively explored the perceptions members of the public who are not environmental activists hold of environmentalists. Therefore a qualitative survey was conducted with 89 US residents aged 21–53 (M_age = 32.74, SD_age = 7.89) to obtain an in-depth understanding of how non-activists within the public perceive environmentalists. Data obtained were analyzed using thematic analysis and demonstrated that non-activist perceptions of environmentalists contained both positive and negative components. Environmentalists were seen to value nature and to be actively involved in bringing about positive environmental change (positive component), yet were also viewed as aggressive in their behaviors and stubborn in their beliefs (negative component). Further still, it was found that environmentalists were more likely to be perceived positively when they engaged in individual-level, private sphere behaviors (such as recycling), and negatively when they engaged in collective-level, public sphere behaviors (such as protesting). These findings not only challenge the assumption that members of the public typically evaluate environmentalists negatively, they also outline why some individuals may fail to identify as an environmentalist and engage in pro-environmental behavior. Furthermore, they also provide some insight as to why some environmentalists find it difficult to advocate for system change that results from collective action within the public sphere.

KEYWORDS:

• Qualitative survey
• thematic analysis
• environmentalist
• perceptions
• identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Anna Klas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6590-5164

Lucy Zinkiewicz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1861-1673

Edward J. R. Clarke http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6441-7150

Notes

1 One hundred participants were initially recruited for the current study. However, to ensure that all participants were not activists or advocates for the environment, membership in an environmentalist organization was used to determine whether one was an environmental activist. This was because it was reasoned that an environmentalist activist would be passionate enough about the natural environment that they would be involved in an environmental organization in some capacity – either as an active member or as a financial contributor. As such, participants who indicated that they were members of an environmental organization (n = 7), not sure if they were (n = 1), or preferred not to say (n = 3) were deleted from all further data analyses.

2 Captain Planet is a US children’s animated television show that has a focus on environmental sustainability.

3 We do acknowledge that many environmentalists see themselves as activists, even those who only engage in individual-level, private sphere pro-environmental behaviours (as seen in Tesch & Kempton, 2004). However, in the context of this study, participants appear to view environmental activism as a subcomponent of the broader environmentalist social category and something that not all environmentalists do.