Are environmental issues moral issues? Moral identity in relation to protecting the natural world

Accepted Manuscript Are environmental issues moral issues? Moral identity in relation to protecting the natural world Fanli Jia, Kendall Soucie, Susan Alisat, Daniel Curtin, Michael Pratt PII:

S0272-4944(17)30077-4

DOI:

10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.06.004

Reference:

YJEVP 1135

To appear in:

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Received Date: 7 December 2016 Revised Date:

3 June 2017

Accepted Date: 11 June 2017

Please cite this article as: Jia, F., Soucie, K., Alisat, S., Curtin, D., Pratt, M., Are environmental issues moral issues? Moral identity in relation to protecting the natural world, Journal of Environmental Psychology (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.06.004. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1 Running head: MORAL IDENTITY AND ENVIROMENTAL INVOLVMENT

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Are Environmental Issues Moral Issues?

Fanli Jia,

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Moral Identity in Relation to Protecting the Natural World

Seton Hall University, 400 S Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ, USA.

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Kendall Soucie,

University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada Susan Alisat

Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, Canada

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Daniel Curtin

Seton Hall University, 400 S Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ, USA. Michael Pratt

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Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Fanli Jia, Ph.D, Department of Psychology, Seton Hall University, 400 S Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ, USA. [email protected] (973) 275-270

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Are Environmental Issues Moral Issues?

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Moral Identity in Relation to Protecting the Natural World

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Abstract As environmental issues continually increase in our world, no research has studied how moral identity (defined as moral values and motivation) relates to an individual’s tendency towards

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environmental involvement. We conducted two studies to examine this relationship. In Study I, 164 university students filled out a questionnaire to assess their moral identities and

environmental involvement. A person-center approach was used to analyze individual moral

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identity. It indicated three clusters of moral identity: self-transcendence, mixed, and self-

enhancement. It was found that only the self-transcendence (benevolence-care and universalism-

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concern) cluster positively predicted environmental involvement. In Study II, we used a narrative approach to assess moral motivations in a group of environmental activists and environmental non-activists. The results revealed three motivations of participants whom scored high in environmental involvement: 1) Concern for other species; 2) Vigilance for the environment; 3)

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Personal disgust towards environmentally irresponsible others. In contrast, we identified two overarching themes of self-interest and apathy among participants who scored low in the environmental involvement. These common themes contain moral values and motivations that

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echo their environmental commitments.

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Key words: Environmental engagement; Moral identity; Value; Narrative

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“Although climate change is an economic and political issue, it is fundamentally a moral issue and it calls for a moral response. However, a piece is largely missing from the literature about the environmental issue, namely an affirmation of our morality in the world.” Moore & Nelson, 2010

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1. Introduction

Scientists continue to provide compelling evidence that environmental degradation and

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consequent global climate change are profoundly dangerous to humans and to other life on earth (Gallup Poll, 2009). Despite global awareness of environmental issues, actions promoting

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environmental sustainability have steadily declined over the past decades, particularly for young adults (Twenge, Campbell, & Freemen, 2012). One reason for this decline of environmental engagement may lie in our understanding of whether environmental issues are moral issues (Moore & Nelson, 2010; Williston, 2015). Morally, do we have moral obligations to preserve the

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rights of all species? A moral person should conceivably have a strong ethical value system which translates into an internal motivation to behave in ways consistent with this self-view. In the two studies we report here, we investigated how individuals’ moral identities are

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related to their environmental commitments through questionnaire assessments because these commitments are oftentimes discussed in relation to harm- and care-based moral domains (Stern,

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Dietz & Black, 1986). We then collected narratives from environmental activists and environmental non-activists about personal experiences with the environment and identified several themes distinguishing between these two groups of participants related to how moral value systems connect to environmental commitments. 2. Theory and Hypotheses

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Environmental psychologists provided evidence on the link between social values and environmental concerns and actions (e.g., Nordlund & Garvill, 2002; Shultz, 2000). Research examining the relationship between values and environmental actions had focused primarily on

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two of Schwartz’s value categories: self-transcendence and self-enhancement (Nordlund &

Garvill, 2002; Schultz et al., 2005; Thøgersen & Ölande, 2002). A common finding from the previous studies is that values of self-transcendence, for example, benevolence and universalism,

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positively predicted self-report measures of environmental actions; whereas, self-enhancement values such as achievement and hedonism were not correlated with the self-report of

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environmental actions. These results have been replicated in recent cross-cultural studies across many European, American, and Asian nations (De Groot & Steg, 2007; Schultz et al., 2005). In moral psychology, recent studies have also supported a link between moral values and environmental actions. For example, moral foundations researchers have found that liberals tend

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to be environmental activists because they support the harm/care and fairness/reciprocity moral foundations more so than do conservatives (Haidt, 2012). Conservatives do support harm/care and fairness/reciprocity concerns, but to a lesser extent than liberals. This link has been further

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supported by Feinberg and Willer’s (2013) study, which showed that environmental issues are considered as moral issues among liberal participants who emphasize care and justice

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considerations. These liberal participants in the study also reframed environmental issues in different moral terms using care/harm and purity/sanctity language. In addition to moral foundations research, recent work done by Jia, Alisat, Soucie, and Prat (2015), and Matsuba, Alisat, & Pratt (in press) demonstrated that both general caring and more specific “caring for future generations” (which is defined as generativity, the 7th stage in Erikson’s (1959) theory of psychosocial development) in emerging adulthood positively predicted environmental actions

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nine years later in young adulthood. Moreover, these caring themes were also evident in the work of Horwitz (1996) and Chan (2009), who studied the life narratives of samples of environmental exemplars. For example, the environmental exemplars mentioned themes about

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care and concern which focused on other people and species. These studies provided clear evidence that values, especially moral values, are related to environmental actions.

However, previous research indicated that the relationship between values and behavior

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was mediated by more specific factors (Beck & Ajze, 1991; Stern, 2000). For example, Kaiser (2006) found that values did not significantly improve the explanatory power of environmental

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behavior, but an indirect relationship was found via motivational sources such as attitudes and intentions. Collin, Steg, and Koning (2007) found that values directly influence individual beliefs, which in turn determine their environmental actions. Nordlund and Garvill (2002) found that personal beliefs mediated the effects from general social values and problem awareness to

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pro-environmental behaviors such as willingness to reduce car use. Stern (2000) also argued that personal norms such as feelings of moral obligation were consistent with prevalent values associated with environmental behaviors.

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In a similar vein, this mediation between values and action has also been discussed in the field of Moral Psychology (Krettenauer, Murua, & Jia, 2016). Blasi (1983) was the first moral

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scholar to argue that moral values lead to prosocial actions more consistently when morality is internalized as part of the actor’s self-identity. In other words, moral values can be more or less central in defining the content of a person’s identity and subsequent life story, as well as more or less integrated into the self-system. Once integrated, they are experienced as self-ideals a person wants to hold, rather than as social expectations one is supposed to meet (Krettenauer & Hertz, 2015). For example, an interaction between moral norms and moral emotions (such as feelings of

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moral regret and guilt) has been shown to be effective in the prediction of environmental behavior (Hunecke, Blobaum, Matthies, & Hoger, 2001). Thus, in this research, we took Blasi’s moral identity approach to link morality to environmental behavior rather than the social value

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approach. We suggested that environmental involvement essentially reflects a person’s moral values which are integrated into the sense of self, leading to their impact on environmental

actions. This approach to environmental action is robust because moral identity is internalized

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and pervasively affects action, not only because of socialization but also because of a person’s own deliberate self-cultivation and coherence (Clayton & Myers, 2015).

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This integrative and motivational function of moral identity is particularly stressed in research on narratives (e.g., McLean & Pasupathi, 2012). As part of the process of exploring and establishing a mature moral identity, individuals begin to construct a personal narrative which organizes and unifies a burgeoning self-concept in adolescence and emerging adulthood

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(McAdams, 2001; McAdams, 2013). By reflecting on salient stories about past moral accomplishments as well as moral failures, while connecting them with their current or future selves, individuals’ selves are informally defined within the scope of their moral responsibilities

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(Tappan, 2010). They define which types of actions, situations, and life circumstances are charged with moral responsibilities and what falls outside this zone. These narratives are

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essential to bringing moral values to the forefront of moral actions. For example, Matsuba and Walker (2005) found that for prosocial exemplars, important features of their moral identity were internalized and reflected in their personal life stories. The present research extends this line of inquiry into environmental topics, a domain

which is often strongly linked to moral concerns and moral norms (Moore & Nelson, 2010; Stern, Dietz & Black, 1986). For example, Measham and Barnett (2008) conducted interviews

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with volunteers from environmental groups in Australia in order to identify their motivations for volunteering. In this study, the most prevalent motivations which emerged in the interviews were related to benevolence and concern (helping a cause, general desire to care for the environment,

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and desire to care for a particular place). Warburton and Gooch (2007) studied the motives for environmental engagement expressed by their older (i.e., > 55 years) environmental stewards. Participants described the “long-term rich rewards associated with environmental change” (p.

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46), and “enjoying helping and teaching younger people” (p. 46).

While these studies provide considerable evidence regarding moral identities of care and

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concern as motives for environmental actions, the body of research presented has focused almost exclusively on environmental activists. However, it is also possible the environmental activists and non-activists elicit different narrative themes with regard to their moral identities. By examining stories told in a non-activists’ group and comparing them to those by a group of

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activists, the current study was able to draw comparisons of their motives and internal value systems for connecting moral identity to environmental commitments. In the present research, we examined moral identity (individual moral values and

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narratives as motivation) in relation to environmental involvement. Although previous research has indicated that self-transcendence values such as benevolence and universalism positively

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predict environmental concerns (e.g. De Groot & Steg, 2007), no research has directly tested individual moral values and motives with regard to self-transcendence in relation to environmental involvement. We expected that individual moral values and motivations of care and concern should positively predict levels of environmental involvement. We conducted two studies to address these inter-relationships. In Study I, we used a person-centered approach to identifying relationships between an individual’s moral identity and

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environmental engagement. Drawing on past research, we hypothesized that individuals who reported higher levels of self-transcendence as part of their moral identities (e.g., care and concern) would engage in greater levels of environmental involvement as compared to

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individuals who reported higher levels of self-enhancement as part of their moral identities (e.g., achievement and self-direction).

In study II, we used a narrative method to compare moral motives between environmental

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activists and non-activists in relation to their moral values. We argued that these differences resulted from a tendency for concern- and care-based moral motivation of narration. We also

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anticipated that environmental activists should express moral motives of care and concern in their environmental narratives, whereas environmental non-activists should express self-interest motives in narrating environmental experiences. 3. Study I

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3.1. Method

One hundred and sixty-four participants (Mage = 19. 51 yrs, SD = 2.32; 68 females) were recruited from Introduction to Psychology classes in a mid-sized American university. A

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majority of the participants (88.43%) were of European American background (e.g., English, Italian, Polish, German, French etc.). Anonymity was guaranteed and participants received

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course credits for attending the session. All participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire packet. The Environmental

Inventory of Involvement Scale (EII) was used to measure environmental actions. This 6-item measure (Matsuba et al., 2012) was expended into an 11-items measure (Jia et al., 2015) to capture additional aspects of environmental engagement. Participants were asked to rate the items on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (never) to 4 (a lot), for the frequency with which they

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engaged in each of the 11 environmental activities such as “bought rechargeable batteries” and “signed a petition or participated in a campaign to make policy or actions more environmentally friendly” within the last year. Cronbach’s α for the overall scale was .91 in this sample.

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Moral values were measured using a questionnaire version of the moral identity interview (Krettenauer et al., 2016). Participants were given a list of 90 moral attributes (e.g., dependable, caring, tolerant) to describe a highly moral person. They were instructed to select 12-15

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attributes that according to their own personal view, defined “the core of a highly moral person”. All 90 attributes were classified into domains of benevolence-dependability, benevolence-caring;

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universality-tolerance, universality-concern; conformity-interpersonal, conformity-rule; selfdirection; and achievement, by five independent coders according to Schwartz’s circumplex model (k = .85) (for a full list of all value attributes and their categorizations, see Table 1). How often participants chose a particular value domain was counted. These scores were divided by the

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overall number of attributes they identified and multiplied by 100, yielding a percentage score of the relative importance of each value domain for defining a person’s moral identity. “Table 1 about here”

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3.2. Results

The studies reviewed previously used a variable-centered approach to identifying

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relationships between values and environmental engagement. Variable-centered approaches are focused on determining relationships between variables and do not take into account that the variables being analyzed are inherent psychological processes of individuals and those processes operate together as a holistic disposition. As a result, the statistics generated by variable-centered approaches do not accurately describe individuals in the sample (von Eye, & Bergman, 2003). Person-centered approaches, on the other hand, keep the relationships between variables within

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individuals intact and focus on grouping individuals with similar profiles, dispositions, or traits. We argue that this type of approach is more useful in identifying prototypes of moral individuals

cluster analysis approach was appropriate for the present research.

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which may not be adequately captured by the use of variable-centered analyses. Thus, we felt a

Prior to conducting these analyses, we removed two univariate (e.g., values more than +/3 standard deviations from the mean) outliers (Garson, 1998). Then, we performed a cluster

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analysis to capture multivariate interactions of different moral value systems using a two-step procedure (Gore, 2000). We first conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s method

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based on squared Euclidian distances to identify the appropriate number of multivariate prototypes of the moral person in the sample. Ward’s method is an agglomerative hierarchal cluster procedure aimed at minimizing the within group variance of clusters (Romesburg, 1984). A total of three clusters were selected based on substantive theorizing, parsimony, and

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explanatory power (e.g., the cluster solution had to explain approximately 50% of the variance in each of the constituent dimensions) to be retained in the analysis. In the second step, these initial cluster centers were used as non-random starting points in an iterative k-means clustering

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procedure. Figure 1 presents the final cluster solution. The cluster solution accounted for 60% of variance in self-transcendence, 57% in mixed values, and 68% of the variance in self-

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enhancement. The self-transcendence cluster (N = 62) scored very high on both universalismconcern and benevolence-care but low on the rest of the moral value domains. The mixed value cluster (N = 70) scored high on both tolerance and dependable moral value domains, moderate on achievement, but low on universalism-concern and benevolence-care. The self-enhancement cluster (N = 32) scored very high on both self-direction and achievement but very low on the rest of the moral value domains.

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“Figure 1 about here” A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine if environmental involvement differed as a function of cluster membership. Preliminary analyses showed that environmental

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involvement was positively skewed (Skewness = 3.82). Thus, we performed a log10

transformation to address the skewness of the data. The data were normally distributed after this transformation, Skewness = -.16. The ANOVA conducted based on the transformed data was

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significant, F (2, 161) = 3.69, p = .027, ƞ2 = .044. Tukey’s post-hoc tests indicated that the selftranscendence cluster scored significantly higher on environmental involvement than the other

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two clusters (p < .01). In contrast, the self-enhancement cluster (self-direction and achievement) scored the lowest on environmental involvement, but did not differ significantly from the mixed value cluster (Mean scores and SD see Table 2). It should be noted that because the degree of this violation of normality has no significant effect on the original results without transformation,

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we kept the original means and standard deviation in Table 2 for the purpose of interpretation. In addition, we checked the assumption of homogeneity of variance. Levene’s test indicated that our data did not violate this assumption (p > .05).

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“Table 2 about here” 3.3. Discussion

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Utilizing a person-centered approach to capturing moral identity, we found three distinct

clusters of individuals in our current sample: self-transcendence, mixed values, and selfenhancement. The self-transcendence individuals scored higher on environmental involvement than the other two clusters. This relationship is consistent with research investigating social values and environmental actions (De Groot & Steg, 2007; Nordlund & Garvill, 2002; Shultz et al., 2005). More importantly, the present study demonstrated that the relationship between moral

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identity and environmental engagement differs as a function of these different categories of moral individuals. It is noteworthy that the mixed values cluster (individuals who scored high on tolerance,

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but low on concern and care) was not related to environmental engagement. One possible

explanation is that the value of tolerance may fall under an altruistic value orientation. The

altruistic value orientation (e.g., tolerance, equality, world peace, and social justice) may be

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distinguished from a biospheric value orientation (e.g., care/concern for nature) (De Groot & Steg, 2007). De Groot and Steg (2007) found that the altruistic value orientation did not

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contribute significantly to the explanation of awareness of environmental consequences and personal norms about the environment. People who were altruistically oriented preferred to help humanitarian organizations rather than environmental movements (De Groot & Steg, 2007). Therefore, future research should examine this complex structure of the mixed values cluster.

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More importantly, these general findings on the link between values and actions raised the question of why both moral and social values about environmental issues were unreliable predictors of support for pro-environmental and prosocial actions (Blasi, 1983; Collins et al.,

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2007; Kaiser, 2006). We sought to answer this question in Study II by comparing environmental activists’ and non-activists’ narratives and therefore potentially highlighting a clearer contrast in

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motivational factors driving environmental involvements with regard to moral identities. 4. Study II

In study II, we investigated differences in environmental narratives between

environmental activists and non-activists in the domain of moral value integration. Along with endorsing moral values, moral motivation has been considered a key antecedent of prosocial action (Krettenauer et al., 2016). Given the importance of narrative research as a motivational

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tool to bridge the gap between moral values and action, we expected that environmental activists would express narrations about self-transcendent moral values in their environmental stories; while non-activists would express self-achievement motivation in discussing environmental

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issues. We examined these questions using thematic analysis as a qualitative research approach (Braun and Clarke, 2013). A thematic analysis is a particular method for systematically

identifying, organizing, and providing insight into patterns of meaning or themes across a data

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set. It allows the researcher to identify and subsequently code collective or shared meanings of experiences as a way of making sense of commonalities and differences between individuals in a

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data set (e.g., activists and non-activists) which are relevant to answering a particular research question.

4.1. Method

Participants were drawn from a large longitudinal study conducted from 1997 to 2012

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(Alisat & Pratt, 2012; Jia et al., 2015; 2016; Matsuba et al., in press). The current sample included one hundred and twelve participants (71% females) whom were assessed in the last wave of the data collection. The Average age was 32 years (SD = .87). Of these, 51% had at least

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one child, 95% were employed, and 74% had completed a university or college degree. In order to determine environmental activists and non-activists, all participants were asked to fill out the

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Environmental Inventory of Involvement questionnaire (EII) (see Study I). A cut-off criterion was applied to identify the two groups: participants who scored over 1.5 standard deviations above the average score on the EII questionnaire were considered as environmental activists; participants who scored over 1.5 standard deviations below the average score of the EII questionnaire were considered as non-activists. This procedure has been used in previous studies (e.g., Alisat & Pratt, 2012; Jia et al., 2015) to create, and then compare and contrast the

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narratives of sub-groups of participants on a particular domain. After completing the questionnaire, participants then completed a semi-structured narrative interview which was adapted from McAdams (2001) life story interview approach. They received an honorarium of

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$50 for their participation in the study.

During the interview, participants were asked to tell four stories relating to their personal experiences with the environment: an important environmental story in general (“tell me about

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an event that was meaningful or important to your current feelings about the environment”), a moral dilemma story (“have you ever been faced with a moral dilemma with regard to the

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environment, and if so, what was the conflict?), a moral courage story (“have you ever done the right thing with respect to an environmental issue even though it was difficult to do?”), and a moral cowardice story (“describe a time when you felt you didn’t show moral courage in terms of the environment”). All participants were asked to follow up their answers using additional

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probes such as “please describe what happened, with whom, when, what you were thinking and feeling, the impact of this event on you and what it says about you as a person”. Narratives were transcribed verbatim.

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4.2. Results

4.2.1 Samples and Narratives Selection

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We identified 20 individuals who scored over 1.5 standard deviations above the mean on

the Environmental Inventory of Involvement questionnaire and thematically analyzed their narratives (80 stories in total). As a comparison group, we coded narratives of 15 environmental non-activists who scored low on the EII scale (1.5 standard deviations below the average; 60 stories in total). 4.2.2. Thematic Analysis

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Braun and Clarke (2013) recommend a six phase approach to conducting a thematic analysis: becoming familiar with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report. Given that this method

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is a common and flexible method because it is amenable to a variety of qualitative analyses (e.g., narratives, diary methods, videos, etc.), we decided that this approach would afford the most analytic depth while maintaining the importance of breadth as compared to more idiographic

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approaches to coding narratives such as discourse analysis (McMullen & Herman, 2009; Potter, 2003) or interpretive phenomenological analysis (Osborn & Smith, 1998).

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In the first phase of this analysis, we familiarized ourselves with each narrative by reading and re-reading the transcribed data, noting down initial ideas and impressions. Then, during phase 2, we generated initial codes which required coding many features and aspects of the data which were relevant to the research question. Then, in phase 3, we constructed themes

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by collating, merging, and integrating overlapping or redundant codes. Each theme thus represented a “central organizing concept,” which included a candidate theme that clustered several related codes together. In phase 4, we reviewed the themes by checking to see if the

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themes matched the data and re-working themes if necessary. This is the quality control phase of the analysis. At phase 5, we defined and named the themes so that each theme was succinct and

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distinct, but also related to other themes. Finally, in the last phase, we reported the major themes and selected vivid and compelling exemplar stories that reflect the breadth and depth of a particular theme, while also integrating the themes back to the original research question. The first author and a graduate student coded all of the data following this approach. We then analyzed the narratives looking for specific passages in which moral values were tied to environmentalism across the four interview stories (Braun & Clarke, 2013). This

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approach to coding rests on the assumption that the data are coded with particular research questions in mind, rather than coding the data as an unbiased observer. We particularly focused on themes about self-transcendent and self-enhancement moral values in these environmental

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stories. Ultimately, we identified three common themes in our environmental activists that

highlight the ways in which moral values are connected to environmental commitments: 1) concern for other species; 2) vigilance for the environment; 3) personal disgust towards

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environmentally irresponsible others. In contrast, we identified two overarching themes of self-

environmentalism in our non-activists. 4.2.3 Narrative Themes

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interest and apathy that were common motivations, which were tied negatively to

First, the theme “concern for other species” describes a sense of concern for the suffering for other individuals and other species. Accordingly, feelings of compassion were discussed in

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response to concern for others species. Here is one example of a story told by a participant who had a high score on environmental involvement.

“I was a vegetarian for seventeen years. I’m kind of still sort of semi-vegetarian., but I

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got this, I got this pretty much, arthritis which was viral, when I was in Vancouver and had to take fish oil from it. So, that was really difficult for me. I wanted to be a veterinarian and I wrote

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poetry about animal rights and got in, um an animal rights book and it was just kind of a pivotal moment, because I realized what effect humans had in the bigger picture, not just you know, a human centric world but complete environmental landscape. I realized our impact, what we took for granted and really the interplay of the environment on humans’ lives and, how we used it and abuse it and what we can change.”

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Another excerpt comes from a man who works as a “road kill” prevention officer. The participant was inspired to help animals get across highways safely by a moment in his youth. “I remember when we were riding our bikes down that road and there were dead frogs

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everywhere. It was like, dead frog pavement. Why are all these frogs dead, what is wrong here that so many frogs are being killed on many nights? They were cooked in the sun and they

couldn’t go anywhere, cause their back legs were like part of the pavement. It was a moment

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where I thought to myself … somebody should do something about that. So, what I do now, part of that is monitoring for areas of high amounts of road kill so that we can then avoid that (yeah)

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and provide passage for those creatures so that there isn’t that road kill, that we don’t lose them and that there’s no more frog pavement.”

These particular stories expand our insight into personal feelings for the biosphere in which individuals take the welfare of other living species into account in their notion of moral

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identities as an internal motivation. Nature is worth protecting not only because of its instrumental value to human beings, but also for its own sake (Wilson, 2016). Second, a theme we labeled, “vigilance for the environment” was characterized by

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participants having great care and personal guardianship towards the environment. It consists of people describing having a deep, inherent love for nature and its workings, and for conservation

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of our natural landscapes. Love and affection motivates this subset of participants to take action towards protecting and preserving the environment. The following environmental stories told by environmental activists show how vigilant

behaviors often reflected this concern, especially in situations where they are acknowledging other people’s non-environmental actions.

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“I’m at the mall, or on the street and I see people have thrown bottles into the garbage, like I did [put] my hand into the garbage and put them into a receptacle, and I usually do it in a way, I shouldn’t do this, this is terrible, but I do it in a way that makes it obvious to the person

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who’s just put it in the garbage, like oh, this doesn’t go here, please use the recycling box next time… In my mind, I thought that if I called people out on these things, then they would be better to the environment, or at least the next time they did it, they would think twice”

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“There were two kind of punks walking by and one was just, had a handful of salt and pepper packets from a restaurant and he was just tearing them open and throwing everything on

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the ground and uh, I made eye contact with him and I kind of looked down at his, the garbage and I looked back up at him again and he made eye contact with me and kind of had this smirk and I, I just said, ‘you’re really going to do that, really? Like you’re an adult. The garbage can is right there’. Um, and he just kept walking, but I stooped down and I picked up the garbage

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and I threw it in the garbage bin.”

These stories portray a struggle of environmental vigilance in moral conflict situations. The participants made the choice of being an environmental guardian over the alternative of

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ignoring harmful behavior from his/her peers. The choice of protecting was motivated by an intense concern and affection towards the environment in a moral sense. In addition to vigilant

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moral behaviors for the environment, intense negative moral emotions towards other people who are careless with nature often become prominent among this group of environmental activists. The third theme, “personal disgust towards environmentally irresponsible others,” was

also noted. These negative moral emotions lead to strong pro-environmental actions to make up for the injustices that are being witnessed. For example, outrage and disgust led this participant

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to take action against a heavy polluting corporation to attempt to mitigate their effect on the environment. This strong negative emotional feeling led to the motivation to fight back. “I went to a foreign country for four months, on my own dime, and sued the fourth most

you know, moral courage, I sort of, I felt moral outrage”

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powerful corporation in the United States for pollution… Yeah, I mean I felt, in the context of,

Here is another example demonstrating the theme that extreme negative emotions

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motivate people to go against social norms. In this case the participant got in a verbal

confrontation because he/she perceived another person as damaging the environment.

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“So there was a time when I was sort of, I got really angry when people idled their car…this person was in his air conditioned SUV in the summer, and I got really angry, and I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but I did it more than once, and I knocked on people’s windows, and told them, or motioned through the window, maybe you should turn your car off

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while you’re waiting.”

In contrast, we identified two overarching themes of self-interest and apathy that were common motivations for how moral values were tied (negatively) to environmentalism. These

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themes did not have as much depth or breadth as the themes reported by the environmental activists. Self-interest may be related to factors such as monetary gain for a person or their

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family, or perhaps just the belief that a person’s time is more valuable than the environment. This particular example involves a participant who has decided to knowingly purchase an environmentally harmful truck. In this case, self-interest in the form of the desire for a big truck was enough to overcome the knowledge that this particular truck may negatively affect the environment.

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“I knew that my car wasn’t gonna be great on, on the environment, but you know, I wanted that car… that’s not something I’m gonna worry about when I’m out, when I’m driving around I guess. It’s just nothing that really kind of hits home to me or makes me... think about.

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Not enough to maybe inconvenience my life for or something like that, right… I bought my truck and I kind of greedily wanted it, as opposed to worry about if it affected anybody, or anything else… and what does it say about me as a person? That the environment doesn’t really rate at

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the top of my priority list, I guess.”

Another non-activist from the sample described that protecting the environment wasted

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his/her time.

“I guess like the hardcore (environmental) action groups like that climbing buildings and dropping banners or putting out random videos or you know, the groups to try to stop all the seal hunting and stuff like that… That they’re wasting their time, that they’re trying, if anybody tries

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to impose their own views on others through whatever means, especially if it’s any type of physical means, that’s just, turns me off from what they’re trying to support. I think everyone needs to think for themselves. You can’t be forced to think some way by a group just because

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they think of a certain, just because they have certain beliefs about stuff. Another example of self-interest:

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“We’re not allowed to put pesticides on our lawn. You know, if somebody were to give

me, my dad works for a company that, they could get their hands on pesticides for your lawn, like to make it green. If I was given the opportunity and said hey, you want some of those? Heck, yeah, you know, absolutely. Uh, and I don’t think I would feel bad about it, you know. Just, I thought, hey it’s a silly law so I write it off, saying what I do is okay.”

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In addition to the self-interest theme, a second subset of participants that scored low on the EII scale exemplified the theme of apathy. They saw the environment as an impossible problem to fix, and do not believe that their actions will have any effect. Due to this belief, these

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people do not actively seek out ways in which they can positively affect the environment. This particular participant went so far as to look down on environmental activists because he believed that he could not make a difference.

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“I had a friend of mine, and, it’s a female friend, and she’s very into recycling and

throwing her trash out, and just like, very just concerned about the environment and stuff, and I

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used to always laugh at her. Not laugh at her, but I would just almost like make fun of her because I always thought that one person couldn’t make a difference…” Here is another example illustrating a non-activist unconcerned about the environment: “I really don’t have any strong feelings for the environment. I guess I fell out of that

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category if somebody else will take care of that, or it’s going to take care of itself and what I do as an individual doesn’t affect the world as a whole. … There is other things to worry about. You know, you’re, you’re wasting your time on trying to recycle one more bottle or recycle that, or

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save that tree from being cut down.”

Here is another story reflecting the apathy theme that shows that the person just feels like

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there is nothing he/she can do that will matter (and uses it as an excuse to do nothing): “I was flying to Shanghai. I looked out over the landscape there was all these coal,

looked like a fire was just coming up all over the landscape. And there was like just these white colored clouds that were just linger(ing) almost just like mist across. They are burning coal and so you saw this everywhere… I am in a country with a billion people. They don’t care… We have thirty million people in Canada. If we all reduced our greenhouse gases and did our

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environmental issue to the best of our ability, we don’t even come close to scratching the surface of the real issues of everyone in the world. Whatever I do is so little and insignificant. It almost is to a point where it’s defeating.”

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4.3. Discussion

Study II provides a motivational link between moral identities and environmental involvements by comparing environmental activists versus non-activists. Regarding

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environmental involvement, the three themes of a concern for the suffering of nature, vigilance and respect for the landscape and environment, and negatively charged moral emotions toward

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environmentally irresponsible others all seemed to serve as motivations which may strengthen moral identities and support the intention to help nature. The narrative approach can provide a meaningful window to understanding of various motivations that can have a bearing on environmental involvement. In addition, although we examined distinctive features of self-

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transcendent moral themes, it seems that participants use them interchangeably. For example, an environmental activist who was concerned about other species (biospheric orientation) also told stories about being an environmental guardian over the alternative of ignoring harmful behavior

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from his/her peers (social-altruistic orientation). De Groot and Steg (2007) suggested researchers should distinguish values between biospheric and altruistic orientations with regard to

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environmental behaviors. Further research should examine the question of how these themes might have a distinctive impact in guiding moral thinking and environmental behavior. 5. General Discussion

The present research examined the role that moral identities play in driving the

motivational differences between environmental activists and non-activists’ views of environmental issues. Study I used a person-level, quantitative approach to establish that the self-

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transcendent moral values systems represented by care and concern positively predicted environmental involvement, whereas neither mixed- nor self-enhancement moral values related to self-reports of environmental involvement. Study II supported our claim, with a different

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sample, that narrations of environmentally-salient life events around moral values are typically grounded in self-transcendent moral domains such as care/concern that environmental activists endorsed more than non-activists. Three themes were identified among the environmental

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activists: 1) concern for other species; 2) vigilance for the environment; 3) personal disgust towards environmentally irresponsible others. On the contrary, non-activists expressed reactions

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to environmental issues as guided by the self-enhancement moral value of achievement, as represented by self-interest. These results suggest that moral identities (both moral values and motivations) may serve as a mechanism for engaging environmental actions. The current research may help explain whether there are different internal mechanisms

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through which environmental concerns translate into action. First of all, previous studies on environmental behaviors based on social value orientations have shown the importance of selftranscendence values as an impetus behind why the consequences of environmental deterioration

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promote environmental actions (e.g., Collins, Steg & Koning, 2007; Nordlund & Garvill, 2002; Schwartz, Sagiv, & Boehnke, 2000). The present research extended this line of work beyond

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general social expectations into the moral domain. We suspect that general social values affect environmental involvement because they depend to a great degree on social expectations which are not as strongly linked to self-identity (Kaiser, 2006; Stern et al., 1993). We argue that, in this study, environmental action is valued to the extent that the values are integrated into people’s moral identities. We expect that the more central to one’s self-identity the particular values are, the more they would influence one’s environmental behavior. Thus, in Study I, instead of giving

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Schwartz’s value spectrum to the participants, we presented values that were generated in moral identity research (e.g., Krettenauer et al., 2016) to the participants and then we explicitly asked them to select attributes that define the core of a highly moral person according to their own

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personal view. We assumed that this approach is robust because moral identity in young adults is internalized and pervasively affects action not only because of socialization but also because of a person’s own deliberate self-cultivation (Clayton & Myers, 2015). Thus, it is crucial to adopt a

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moral identity approach to examine participants’ views of environmental actions through the lens of their moral values systems.

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Secondly, in Study II, we used a narrative method to compare moral motives between environmental activists and non-activists in relation to their moral values. Environmental activists could be nominated and selected by individuals or environmental organizations. However, this nomination method in previous research has a limitation that the sample is

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selective and is less likely to represent a general population. Few studies have examined environmental stories from an unselected sample (ordinary people including both groups of activists and non-activists), as most previous studies examined the narratives of activists selected

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for their commitment to environmental issues (Matsuba & Pratt, 2013). In addition, because narrative methods have the flexibility to focus on domain-specific

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aspects of identity as construed by the individual, these methods can provide insight into the individual’s personal thoughts and connections within that specific context, beyond what can be assessed with general social or moral value instruments (Alisat & Pratt, 2012; Soucie, Lawford & Pratt, 2012). Within the moral domain, for example, Matsuba and Walker (2005) found that for prosocial exemplars, their moral identities were internalized and reflected in the personal life story. The present research extends this line of inquiry into environmental topics and a sort of

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environmental life story, a domain which is often strongly linked to moral concerns and moral norms for many participants (Moore & Nelson, 2010; Stern et al., 1986). Along those lines, our Study II highlighted different moral motivations from

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environmental activists’ and non-activists’ narrations regarding environmental issues. For

instance, environmental activists described an overall moral concern for all species, not just humans. This motivation has been described as a “biospheric morality” based on which an

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individual would express and act on moral principles that incorporate concerns with other

species and with natural environments. (De Groot & Steg, 2007; Stern et al., 1993). In addition,

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we found environmental activists’ narratives described negative moral emotions such as anger and disgust toward environmentally irresponsible others. This may suggest that individuals may experience guilt about their own environmental transgressions, hold resentment for others’ polluting or environmentally-irresponsible behavior, or express anger over experiencing health

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problems created by pollution (Krettenauer, 2017; Montada & Kals, 2000). Feinberg and Willer (2013) also found that the moral emotion of disgust mediated the relationship between moral values and pro-environmental attributes in a group of conservative individuals. Thus, one’s

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emotional reaction to the environment, particularly to environmental degradation caused by

2002).

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humans, is often a strong motivator of engagement in pro-environmental behavior (Schultz,

Moreover, these different motives may lead to different forms of environmental actions.

For instance, concern for other species may lead to actions whose aim is to protect animals’ wellbeing, whereas personal disgust towards environmentally irresponsible others may result in fighting against people and institutions that devastate the environment. In the present study,

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environmental activists scored high on all the environmental engagement items, which might suggest the need for an instrument to better distinguish among the groups in future research. In contrast, environmental non-activists’ narratives reflected egoistic motivations toward

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environmental issues comprised of self-interest toward environmental concerns. An individual would, however, become involved in protecting the environment when and only when doing so would have expected benefits for the individual that would offset the expected costs. The self-

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interest motives may affect non-activists’ environmental choices via financial incentive rather than representing an intrinsic part of the environmental decision. For example, reimbursement of

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deposits for glass bottles or cans may encourage non-activists to recycle containers rather than discarding them; Rebates for hybrid cars and solar panels may encourage them to make sustainable investments. However, recently research has indicated that overly large rewards for behavior can reduce the tendency to engage in the behavior when the reward is not present

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(Bolderdijk & Steg, 2015), perhaps undermining intrinsic motivation. Interestingly, non-activists also expressed a motive of apathy. They saw the environment as an impossible problem to fix, and they did not believe that their actions would have any effect.

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They assumed that picking up litter and recycling might have almost no impact on the major ecosystem. Due to this belief, these non-activists do not seek out ways in which they can

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positively affect the environment. However, research on the “foot-in-the-door effect” suggests that a small action may prompt people to take further actions due to commitment (Burger, 1999). Future research on the conditions under which small steps of commitment lead to more silent pro-environmental actions is needed. The present studies are limited in some key respects. Foremost among these is the fact that these data are correlational. We therefore cannot identify the causal mechanisms underlying

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the present findings. We expected that moral values and motivation lead people to adopt central considerations regarding environmental involvement outside the traditional social value domain to satisfy moral needs. However, these moral dispositions may simply correlate with other

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characteristics which causally affect environmental actions. An experimental design (especially one priming moral perceptions and preferences regarding environmental issues) will be useful for identifying mechanisms of causal influence. For example, Mazar and Zhong (2010) found

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that people act more altruistically after priming of buying green products than after purchasing conventional products, perhaps due to self-consistency motivations.

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Secondly, as individual moral value clusters appeared to explain a relatively small percentage of the variance in environmental involvements in our study, it is very likely that along with moral values, other factors play a role as well, such as personal norms, environmental awareness, or motives (Collins, Steg & Koning, 2007; Nordlund & Garvill, 2002; Thøgersen &

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Ölander. 2002). Another possibility is that the environmental involvement scale may not capture all of the features of environmental actions. Recently, Alisat and Riemer (2015) argued that little empirical knowledge is currently available about the distinction of different levels of

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involvement in environmental actions. They proposed that environmental actions should be ranked from low-level participatory civic action, such as participating in community events

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about environmental issues, to highly involved leadership actions such as organizing a boycott. Thus, future research should investigate different levels of involvement, especially with emerging adults who may start to engage in low levels of environmental action because these actions require relatively little competence and commitment. Third, it should be noted that the present findings might not generalize beyond the types of self-transcendence/self-enhancement moral identities examined in the current studies. Other

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moral value domains such as conformity, security and/or tradition may map onto environmental attitudes across different individuals and contexts (Katz-Gerro et al., 2016; Krettenauer et al., 2016). Moreover, various types of group members (e.g., ethnicity, religions, nations, and age

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groups) are tied to moral viewpoints in differing ways. In fact, the participants in study I were European-American college students and the participants in study II were Canadian young adults. Thus, it is possible that moral values and motivation do not simply promote

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environmental involvements uniformly in different populations or settings. Research from a wider range of nations, ethnicities, age groups, and samples (across both student and non-student

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population) will be necessary to address this matter.

It also seems reasonable, given the complex relationships that emerged among moral values, motivation and environmental involvement that any program which is intended to increase environmental involvement ought to acknowledge these complicated relationships by

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encouraging the building of moral values and motivation. For example, environmental education programs can encourage contemplation of personal connections with the natural world while moral identities are being built, so those moral values could be directly integrated into the self-

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concept and self-understanding. In addition, news and media can be utilized in this line of research by reframing environmental issues to fit within activists’ moral values and motivations.

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This may lead readers to perceive the source of the message as someone who is similar to them (e.g., angry towards environmentally irresponsible others or someone feeling of vigilance for the environment) which may, in turn, make them more receptive to and persuaded by the message. Media campaigns should also specifically consider all three of these motives when they are crafting their environmental messages. For example, a program to encourage recycling could talk about preserving habitat for other species, saving natural resources (land, water), and show how

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not recycling is environmentally irresponsible. Given the apathy and feelings that non-activists appear to have that they cannot make a difference, messaging for them could focus on the idea that even small action can have an impact. This idea might help them counteract feelings that one

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person cannot make a difference.

Even though additional research must be conducted before we can develop a complete picture of the relationship of all features of morality with environmental involvement, we hope

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that we have raised issues that provide a good starting point for future investigations of the role of moral values and motivation as both a cause of, and a solution for, guiding and clarifying

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environmental involvements. In conclusion, the present study offers insights on how deeply moral identities and motivations are embedded in these environmental issues. References

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Table 1. Value Domains and Attributes Defining Individuals’ Moral Identity Value Domain/Attributes Dependability: Being a reliable and trustworthy group member Dependable, faithful, genuine, honest, loyal, reliable, responsible, sincere, trustworthy, truthful, credible, incorruptible

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•

Tolerance: Acceptance of those who are different from oneself •

Accepting, listens, non-judgmental, open-minded, patient, respectful, tolerant, understanding, wise

Benevolence-caring: Devotion to the welfare of ingroup members

Altruistic, benevolent, caring, forgiving, generous, helpful, kind, loving, selfless, sharing, warm-hearted

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•

Universalism-concern: Commitment to equality, justice and protection for all Fair, just, compassionate, peaceful

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•

Conformity-rules: Compliance with rules, laws and formal obligations •

Follows the rules, law abiding, obedient, ethical, principled

Achievement: Success according to social standards •

Hard-working, perseveres, proud, self-disciplined, educated, intelligent, diligent, motivated, ambitious

Conformity-interpersonal: Avoidance of upsetting other people

Considerate, cooperative, courteous, conscientious, friendly, sociable, civilized

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•

Humble: Recognizing one's insignificance in the larger scheme of things •

Humble, modest, grateful, dedicated

Self-direction: Cultivate one's own ideas and determine one's own action Confident, consistent, courageous, independent, rational

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•

Face: Maintaining once public image and avoiding humiliation Exemplary, honorable

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•

Security: Safety and stability in one's immediate environment and the wider society •

Clean, healthy, patriotic, solidaric, prudent, careful

Hedonism: Pleasure and sensuous gratification •

Fun, happy

Tradition: Respect of the customs and ideas that traditional culture •

Religious, Filial piety

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Self-enhancement

Mixed

(N = 62)

(N = 32)

(N = 70)

2.78 (1.00)

2.37 (.98)

2.39 (.68)

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Self-transcendence

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Table 2. Mean Scores of Environmental Involvement across Clusters

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Highlights:

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Moral identity serves as a mechanism for engaging environmental actions. Environmental action is driven by both self-transcendent moral values and motives. Environmental activists showed disgust towards environmentally irresponsible others. Environmental non-activists expressed egoistic motivations toward environmental issues.

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Funding: This research was supported by the Seton Hall University Research Council to the first author; and by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant to the fifth author and colleagues.