The Role of Future Orientation in Environmental Behavior: Analyzing the Relationship on the Individual and Cultural Levels

Abstract

The concept of sustainability includes a personal and societal imperative to assume responsibility for the future outcomes of present actions, to look forward, or in other words, to have a future orientation. Future orientation is both a personality trait and a cultural characteristic that strongly influences behavioral decisions on the personal and societal levels, respectively. This research addresses the relationship between future orientation and pro-environmental behavior on both levels. In a representative sample of the population (n = 1216), we found that individuals with developed future orientation demonstrated more pro-environmental tendencies. On the cross-cultural level we also found that in countries that conduct future-oriented practices in general the environment benefits, because the citizens tend to behave more pro-environmentally. The parallel between factors that affect future orientation and environmental behavior and the implications for promoting pro-environmental practices in the social and personal levels are discussed.

Keywords:

• conservation psychology
• cross-national research
• environmental attitudes and behavior
• future orientation

Notes

^a The mean describes the frequency of the respondents' engagement in each of the daily practical behaviors on a scale of 1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, and 4 = always.

^b 93 respondents (7.6%) reported that “recycling is not available where I live.”

^c 141 respondents (11.6%) reported that “organic food is not available where I live.”

^d 322 respondents (26.5%) reported “I do not have or cannot drive a car.”

^a Germany, former GDR.

^b Germany, former FRG.