Abstract

FRIAS ARMENTA, Martha; MARTIN RODRIGUEZ, Ana M.  and  CORRAL VERDUGO, Víctor. Analysis of factors influencing the development of environmental norms and anti-ecological behavior. Interam. j. psychol. [online]. 2009, vol.43, n.2, pp. 309-322. ISSN 0034-9690.

This paper is aimed at evaluating the impact of variables presumably related to the development of environmental norms, assuming that environmental transgressions are a particular manifestation of antisocial behavior. 186 undergraduate students responded to a questionnaire assessing their self-reported anti-ecological behavior (considered as dependent variable, DV), their personal norms, their social norms, their perception of authority’s and legal processes’ legitimacy, and the dissuasion they detected in legal structures. Data were analyzed using a structural equations model, which revealed that personal and social norms directly affected anti-ecological behavior, being negative the effect of the former and positive the influence of the latter; while dissuasion indirectly and negatively influenced such behavior, through social norms. Perceived legitimacy had an indirect and negative effect on the DV, mediated by dissuasion and social and personal norms. These results are coherently connected with previous studies regarding the obedience of ordinary norms, in which social norms and dissuasion exert their effects through the internalization of ordinary norms, which are manifested as personal moral norms.

Keywords : Anti-ecological behavior; Personal norms; Social norms; Legitimacy; Dissuasion.

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