Knowledge, Morality, and Threat Perception: A Juxtaposition of Internal Influences on Climate Change–Related Behavioral Intentions in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

As part of efforts to mitigate the consequences of environmental degradation resulting from negative human activities, the focus of social–scientific studies on human–nature relationships has expanded in the last two decades to include research on the behavioral dimensions of global climate change. Current research findings make it apparent that sociopsychological influences play a highly significant role in the cognitive processes that underlie environmental behaviors. Factors such as awareness, moral responsibility, and threat perception have been identified as some of the most important influences on positive climate change–related behaviors in many Western societies. However, to date very few studies of this nature have been conducted in African contexts. Hence, in this study, we attempt to help fill this gap by comparing the effects of three models of behavior: (1) awareness, (2) moral responsibility, and (3) threat perception, as frameworks of climate change–related behavior among a sample of Nigerian urbanites. Analysis of our data, generated by a questionnaire survey, revealed that the threat perception model explained the largest amount of variance in behavioral intentions (R² = 0.23). The differences in the performances of the models are discussed together with the implications of our findings for climate change advocacy efforts in the region.

Key Words:

• environmental awareness
• threat perception
• norm activation
• Nigeria
• climate change
• behavioral intentions

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Emmanuel Emiantor, Anthony Ifedi, Cynthia Ubozoro, Ignatius Amama, Olivia Okocha, and Temitope Kolade for their assistance during data collection.