Does knowledge matter? An investigation of the relationship between mental models of climate change and proenvironmental behaviors [electronic resource]
Keywords: Education.

In the face of the myriad environmental challenges that humans face as a result of global change, citizens will increasingly be expected to understand complex phenomena such as climate change. Decisions such as individual behavior choices, voting, and activism are related to understanding these issues. This study addresses the question of how an educated citizenry might adapt to evolving public information as scientists refine their own understanding and predictions about global change. This dissertation describes an investigation of mental models of climate change and their relationship to proenvironmental behaviors. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that behaving in an environmentally responsible manner involves an understanding of the phenomenon, in this case, climate change; holding proenvironmental attitudes, which orient an individual towards a normative goal frame; and receiving situational cues that strengthen the normative goal frame. This study tests these hypotheses by measuring mental models of climate change, beliefs about climate change, attitudes towards climate change and behavioral intentions in one study and then manipulating situational cues in an experimental decision-making setting in another. The study incorporates both correlational and experimental designs. Correlational data comprised responses from US adults on three instruments: mental models of climate change, beliefs about and attitudes towards climate change, and proenvironmental behaviors. Patterns of correlations for mental models, beliefs/attitudes, and self-reported behaviors were analyzed and multiple regression analysis were employed to fit models to the data. For the experimental design, individuals were randomly presented with one of three environmental messages and asked their willingness to engage in actions to address climate change. Logistic regression analysis was employed to model relationship between mental models, attitudes, and experimental condition on behavioral intentions. Both main effects and interactions were analyzed. With both self-reported behaviors and behavioral intentions as dependent variables, mental model scores were not independently predictive of proenvironmental behaviors. The beliefs/attitudes survey yielded three scores that were independently predictive of proenvironmental behaviors: the belief that climate change is caused by humans, the belief that there is evidence climate change is happening, and attitudes towards climate change. The main experimental intervention in this study, environmental messaging, did not result in any meaningful differences in willingness to engage in actions to address climate change. Attitudes were the only main effect predictive of proenvironmental behavioral intentions, yet none of the interactions with attitudes were statistically significant. The interaction of mental models and messaging was statistically significant. The results of this study show a relationship between education and behavior. There was no teaching intervention or data collected about formal and informal learning experiences related to climate change so little can be said about what types of education are most effective, but the data suggests that knowledge affects responsiveness to situational cues that impact behavioral decisions.