Cited by 928Pro-Environmental Behavior and AttitudesPsychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentClimate Change Communication and Perception

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The Moral Roots of Environmental Attitudes

Feinberg, Matthew, Willer, Robb·2013·Psychological Science

DOI 10.1177/0956797612449177

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Abstract

Americans' attitudes about the environment are highly polarized, but it is unclear why this is the case. We conducted five studies to examine this issue. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrated that liberals, but not conservatives, view the environment in moral terms and that this tendency partially explains the relation between political ideology and environmental attitudes. Content analyses of newspaper op-eds (Study 2a) and public-service announcements (Study 2b) found that contemporary environmental discourse is based largely on moral concerns related to harm and care, which are more deeply held by liberals than by conservatives. However, we found that reframing proenvironmental rhetoric in terms of purity, a moral value resonating primarily among conservatives, largely eliminated the difference between liberals' and conservatives' environmental attitudes (Study 3). These results establish the importance of moralization as a cause of polarization on environmental attitudes and suggest that reframing environmental discourse in different moral terms can reduce the gap between liberals and conservatives in environmental concern.

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Background
Causal Model Analysis of the Effects of Civil Servants’ Perceived Formalism, Green Conscientiousness, and Moral Reflectiveness on Green Behavior
Wu, T.-L., & Liu, H.-T. (2023) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su15075772 · Cited by 11
The moral significance of protecting environmental and cultural objects
Bastian, B. B., Crimston, C. R., Klebl, C., & Lange, P. A. M. V. (2023) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0280393 · Cited by 14
Countering Identity-protective Responses to Climate Change Data
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What is an endangered species?: judgments about acceptable risk
Offer-Westort, T., Feltz, A., Bruskotter, J., & Vucetich, J. (2020) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab5cc8 · Cited by 11
Perceived Morality and Antiatheist Prejudice: A Replication and Extension
Simpson, A., McCurrie, C. H., & Morrison, K. R. (2019) · International Journal for the Psychology of Religion · doi:10.1080/10508619.2019.1568142 · Cited by 10
From cash to crickets: The non-monetary value of a resource can promote human cooperation
Bastian, B., Brewer, M., Duffy, J., & van Lange, P. (2019) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.11.002 · Cited by 11
A moral house divided: How idealized family models impact political cognition
Feinberg, M., & Wehling, E. (2018) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193347 · Cited by 24
Self-citation
Can Cartoons Influence Americans' Attitudes Toward Bailouts?
Abdel-Raheem, A. (2017) · Visual Communication Quarterly · doi:10.1080/15551393.2016.1230472 · Cited by 11
“…immigration, and terrorism, among many others (Brewer, 2001, 2003; Chong & Druckman, 2007; Crandall, Eidelman, Skitka, & Morgan, 2009; Druckman, 2001; Feinberg & Willer, 2013; Iyengar, 1990, 1991; Kinder & Sanders, 1990; Nelson, Oxley, & Clawson, 1997; Nelson & Garst, 2005; Rasinski, 1989; Shen &…”
Kinship appeals and conservation social marketing
Qirko, H. N. (2017) · Biodiversity and Conservation · doi:10.1007/s10531-017-1297-9 · Cited by 11
Exploring the Impact of Mindful Leadership on Employee Green Creativity in Manufacturing Firms: A Social Information Processing Perspective
Sun, B., & Xi, Y. (2024) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs14080712 · Cited by 12
Toward residential decarbonization: Analyzing social-psychological drivers of household co-adoption of rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and efficient HVAC systems in Georgia, U.S.
Cha, M.-K., Struthers, C. L., Brown, M. A., Kale, S., & Chapman, O. (2024) · Renewable Energy · doi:10.1016/j.renene.2024.120382 · Cited by 17
Tastiness of meat and plant protein foods are associated with political partisanship and may be influenced by partisan messaging
Kershaw, J. C., Nolden, A., Brown, A. R. C., Hites, T., & Jefferies, L. (2023) · Food Quality and Preference · doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2023.105039 · Cited by 10
Effect of organizational status on employment‐related corporate social responsibility: Evidence from a regression discontinuity approach
Tian, T.-Y. Y., King, B. G., & Smith, E. B. (2023) · Strategic Management Journal · doi:10.1002/smj.3534 · Cited by 10
Moral Foundations Partially Explain the Associations of Machiavellianism, Grandiose Narcissism, and Psychopathy With Homonegativity and Transnegativity
Kay, C. S., & Dimakis, S. (2022) · Journal of Homosexuality · doi:10.1080/00918369.2022.2132576 · Cited by 10
“Second, it suggests that one way to decrease homonegativity and transnegativity among people with antagonistic personality traits is to reframe issues of intolerance and discrimination in terms of moral beliefs that they would be more likely to appreciate (see Feinberg & Willer, 2013).”
Background
Moral values, social ideologies and threat-based cognition: Implications for intergroup relations
Morris, D. S. M., & Stewart, B. D. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.869121 · Cited by 15
“Research on moral framing of issues has begun to hint that framing policies with moral foundations may persuade people who invest in the relevant foundations (Feinberg and Willer, 2013; Kidwell et al., 2013).”
Background
Lessons from an experiment with values‐based messaging to support watershed conservation
Marquina, T. G., Hackenburg, D. M., Duray, H., Fisher, B., & Gould, R. K. (2022) · Conservation Biology · doi:10.1111/cobi.13910 · Cited by 18
“…communication strategies that segment and target audiences based on sociodemographic, geographic, or cultural characteristics can result in more effective outcomes than strategies that employ a single communication strategy across all segments (Dayer et al., 2014; Feinberg & Willer, 2013).”
Background
ERP Study of Liberals’ and Conservatives’ Moral Reasoning Processes: Evidence from South Korea
Yun, J. H., Kim, Y., & Lee, E. (2021) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-021-04734-2 · Cited by 15
Their Economy and Our Health: Communicating Climate Change to the Divided American Public
Chu, H., & Yang, J. Z. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17217718 · Cited by 15
“Even among climate change deniers, the reasons behind motivated reasoning differ [10,18,19].”
Background
“They should have followed the rules”: Trade-offs Between Fairness and Authority Values Predict Judgments of Social Justice Protests
Monroe, A., Wyngaarden, J., & Plant, E. A. (2020) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550620923854 · Cited by 10
“…moral values influence a broad array of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes including care and sanctity motivating pro-environmental attitudes (Feinberg & Willer, 2013), care increasing the willingness to help the poor (Low & Wui, 2015), sanctity predicting the condemnation of suicide…”
Background
Individual differences predict endorsement of water resilience
Baird, J., Dale, G., & Farhad, S. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-62896-x · Cited by 10
Assessing public support for degrowth: survey-based experimental and predictive studies
Krpan, D., Bassó, F., Hickel, J., & Kallis, G. (2025) · The Lancet Planetary Health · doi:10.1016/j.lanplh.2025.101326 · Cited by 12
Why the right resists veg(etari)anism: Ideological commitment to consuming animal products
Ioannidou, M., Harlow, G., Patel, M., Leach, S., Hodson, G., & Dhont, K. (2025) · Food Quality and Preference · doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105769 · Cited by 7
From Persuasion Theory to Climate Action: Insights and Future Directions for Increasing Climate-Friendly Behavior
Miller, L. B. (2025) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su17072832 · Cited by 15
A Scientific Discussion of Post-Materialism Values and Environmental Behavior
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“When pro-environmental appeals were reframed in terms of purity, a value resonating more with conservatives, the difference in environmental attitudes was reduced [19].”
Background
The role of political orientation and value framing in carbon pricing acceptance: Evidence from a representative sample
Bolte, S., Klackl, J., Hansen, J., Jonas, E., & Uhl-Haedicke, I. (2024) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102330 · Cited by 11
A Passion for Virtue? Appeals to Morality and Emotions in European Parliament Climate Change Debates
Salgado, R. M. S., & Bos, L. (2024) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/00027642241242036 · Cited by 9
“In the realm of the environment, Feinberg and Willer (2013) showed that only liberals view the environment in moral terms, which can be explained by the fact that climate discourse at the time of their study was mostly connected to a narrative emphasizing individualizing moral concerns about harm…”
From partial to integrated perspectives: How understanding worldviews can expand our capacity for transformative climate governance
Pender, A. (2023) · Earth System Governance · doi:10.1016/j.esg.2023.100174 · Cited by 12
What Makes an Environmental Steward? An Individual Differences Approach
Plummer, R., Baird, J., & Dale, G. (2022) · Environmental Values · doi:10.3197/096327121x16141642287773 · Cited by 9
When Less is better: Messages that Present Dietary Carbon Emissions Data at the individual (vs. Aggregate) Level Increase Commitment to Sustainable Beef Consumption.
Aberman, Y., & Plaks, J. E. (2022) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2022.105980 · Cited by 9

Authors: Feinberg, M., & Willer, R.
Affiliations: Stanford University (US)
University of California, Berkeley (US)
Corresponding author: Feinberg, Matthew
ORCID: Feinberg, Matthew
Willer, Robb
Venue: Psychological Science
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2012-12-10
Volume: 24
Issue: 1
Pages: 56-62
ISSN: 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
1467-9280
DOI: 10.1177/0956797612449177
OpenAlex: W2120107374
Cited by: 928
References: 0
Citations by year: 2026: 74 · 2025: 85 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 80 · 2022: 89 · 2021: 101 · 2020: 116 · 2019: 88 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 52 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 41 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 17
FWCI: 81.04
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations: Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics: Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Pro-Environmental Behavior and Attitudes
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
Keywords: environmental attitudes, moralization, political ideology, moral foundations, purity, reframing, environmental discourse, public service announcements
MeSH terms: Attitude, Conservation of Natural Resources, Female, Humans, Male, Mass Media, Morals, Persuasive Communication, Politics, Public Policy, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, Recycling

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The Moral Roots of Environmental Attitudes

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