Is Environmental Awareness a Good Predictor of an Individual’s Altruism Level?

Abstract

This study investigated the validity of using a Likert-type environmental awareness index to predict an individual’s altruism level by comparing models identifying how respondents’ demographical characteristics (age, income, education, gender, etc.), degree of political and social awareness, and attitudes toward donation influence the environmental awareness index and the self-report altruism scale (SRAS). Using survey data from a sample of Japanese respondents, the study revealed a bidirectional relationship between environmental awareness and SRAS indices. Furthermore, through examining the effects of respondents’ demographical characteristics and other characteristics on the environmental awareness and SRAS indices, the study identifies that the directions of the influences of these covariates on the indices were all similar when their estimated coefficients were statistically significant. Hence, the study reveals that the environmental awareness index does capture the characteristics of the SRAS index.