Beliefs, ideologies, contexts and climate change: the role of human values and political orientations in western European and transition states

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change presents a threat on a scale unlike any other faced by human civilizations. Accordingly, extensive research has engaged with questions about which types of characteristics and under which conditions make it more or less likely for a person to be concerned about climate change, engage in actions aimed at fighting climate change, and support climate change relevant policies. Of this prior research, political factors and human values have emerged as key predictors. Values and political factors are deeply related constructs, and do not operate in isolation of each other. But, as of yet, little is known about how these factors interrelate to affect differences in climate change attitudes and behaviors. Further, contextual factors, such as political structures, affluence, and prior histories, have been linked to climate change attitudes and behaviors. Recent findings have noted stark differences between key predictors in Western European and post-communist transition states, such as those between political factors and human values. But, it is unclear in which ways these contextual differences systematically differentiate the patterning of climate change attitudes and behaviors. Accordingly, this dissertation engages theoretically and empirically with the issues of how human values and political factors interrelate to determine climate change attitudes and behaviors, and how these forces diverge based upon the Western European and transition state settings. Overall, when values and politics are in alignment, these forces affect an amplification of climate change attitudes and behaviors, a finding consistent in both settings. But, the role of human values and political factors substantively differs between these state groupings, as well as across different forms of climate change attitudes and behaviors.