Individual responses to environmental risks in national contexts: Understanding linkages between environmentally sustainable behaviours in Brazil and South Africa

Responding to large-scale environmental risks such as climate change requires a commensurate shift by citizens towards more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. Within social psychology the theory of ‘behavioural... [ view full abstract ]

Responding to large-scale environmental risks such as climate change requires a commensurate shift by citizens towards more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. Within social psychology the theory of ‘behavioural spillover’ proposes that performing one pro-environmentally motivated action has consequences (positive or negative) in predisposing an individual to take up other related behaviours. Understanding spillover offers the potential to enable a more effective citizen engagement in responding to environmental problems. However, the evidence for spillover is scarce and has tended to be limited to experimental or correlational studies, with little attention to the broader cultural and national contexts in which individuals are situated. The present study draws on data from a larger cross-national and mixed methods project (‘CASPI’: Low Carbon Lifestyles and Behavioural Spillover) that considers the role of individual action in response to environmental risks.

As a major industrialising nation, Brazil has taken a lead on sustainability initiatives, yet environmental issues such as Amazon deforestation and air and water pollution pose major concerns. Meanwhile, in South Africa, economic development and population growth has resulted in severe resource depletion, significant environmental damage and species loss. We consider people’s perceptions of environmental risks and their own role in responding to them, within the particular sociocultural contexts of Brazil and South Africa. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews (n=68) with public participants in these two countries, we examine which environmental problems are felt to be important to individuals in their everyday lives, the reasons underpinning why they feel able (or not) to act on these, and their understanding of the circumstances under which personal action is felt to be effective. We consider in particular the ways in which participants conceptualise commonalities between 32 private and public sphere behaviours and the routes by which action in one context or domain leads to action in another, with a focus on perceptions of ease/difficulty and environmental impact. As part of our analysis, we compare differences between environmentally-committed and non-committed individuals in Brazil and South Africa, and draw conclusions concerning the different routes to sustainable lifestyles and the variability in how these are conceived.