Postmaterialism and Support for the Environment in the United States

ABSTRACT

Postmaterialist theory suggests that under conditions of continuously expanding economic and personal security, younger generations will be less oriented to acquiring material goods and more committed than their older peers to attaining postmaterial social goals such as increased free self-expression and a healthy natural environment. Using the latest World Values Survey sample for the United States, ordinary least squares (OLS) and logit regressions are employed to test whether youth is a predictor of postmaterialism as theory suggests, and whether postmaterialism positively predicts environmental concern and individual actions in support of the environment. Age is found to be a negative and statistically significant factor in explaining variation in the postmaterialism index, and this index is in turn found to be a statistically significant positive factor in explaining individual environmental concern and activism. A combination of increased economic security and entrance of younger generations into adulthood could well matter for our environmental future.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental activism
• environmental concern
• environmental values
• millennials
• postmaterialism
• United States