Study about Personal and Situational Factors
Abstract: Despite the societal importance of reusing waste materials, few empirical studies have specifically examined recycling behaviors as differentiated from attitudes and intentions. This paper reviews the empirical studies of recycling, summarizes research findings, and identifies areas for future research. The effects on recycling behavior of both personal variables (personality, demographics, and attitudes of environmental concern) and manipulable situational variables are reviewed. Results indicate that high income is a good predictor of recycling, whereas gender and age are not. General environmental concern appears to be related to recycling only when recycling requires a high degree of effort. However, relevant specific attitudes have consistently been found to correlate with recycling behavior.
Introduction: The need to recycle used materials has become a pressing issue over the last 30 years (Ladd, 1990). This increasing concern is clearly evidenced in the proliferation of federal, state, and local legislation directed toward the implementation .of recycling programs. In 1993 in the U.S.A., 41 of the 50 states had in place laws specifying a minimum level of refuse that must be recycled (Grogan, 1993). Despite the increasing concern regarding conservation of natural resources, scant psychological research has been conducted on recycling or conservation be- haviors as differentiated from attitudes, intentions, and beliefs. Although reviews of varied pro-environ- mental behaviors have previously been published (Geller et al., 1982; Dwyer et al., 19931, the topic of recycling behaviors has received relatively little attention. Keep reading…
