Discussion…

In the first hypothesis we stated that Chilean and German students differ with regard to awareness of the consequences of biodiversity loss and ascription of responsibility to protect biodiversity, personal norms and behavioral commitments, due to Chileans’ proximity to the problem. Our data supported this hypothesis partially. Interestingly, Chilean students responded more positively on almost all scales relevant to hypothesis 1. Exceptions were awareness of altruistic consequences (n.s.) and the NEP, in which German students scored higher.

Regarding the lower scores of Chilean students on the NEP, some authors report similar findings with Latin American samples (cf. Johnson et al., 2004). However, some authors stated that people with a Latin American cultural background are more connected with nature (Lynch, 1993) or more “ecologically attuned” (Noe and Snow, 1990) and also score higher on the NEP (e.g. Schultz et al., 2000).

The higher scores of Chilean students for ascription of responsibility, awareness of consequences, personal norms and for the three types of behavioral commitment could be due to Chileans’ proximity to the problem of biodiversity loss. Direct observation of biodiversity loss might lead to a stronger personal norm and therefore, a higher commitment to becoming active in environmental protection. However, environmental protection is only slowly gaining public interest in most Latin American countries including Chile (Rieckmann, 2004). Therefore, we should consider that Chilean students might not see the actual efforts to be invested for pro-environmental behavior. In contrast, German students might be desensitized of environmental protection and other problems, such as unemployment superpose environmental issues on students’ list of concerns (Hurrelmann, Albert & TNS Infratest, 2006). The extremely low commitment of German students to protect biodiversity through activism supports the finding of a recent Greenpeace study which repeated that young Germans prefer private activities such as purchase decisions (Greenpeace, 2005). For Chilean students the same might be true in that although a commitment to protect biodiversity through activism was clearly higher in the Chilean sample, activism was again the type of commitment that displayed the lowest approval.

In hypothesis 2 we assumed that universalism and personal norms would be the strongest predictors for all assessed behavioral commitments to protect biodiversity. However, hypothesis 2 can only be supported partially. On the one hand, personal norms were extremely important for predicting all commitment types in both samples. Within the

Norm-Activation Model, personal norms are defined as, “self-expectations for specific actions in particular situations that are constructed by the individual “ (Schwartz, 1977, p. 227). It is evident that such a self-expectation is an important precondition for showing pro-environmental behaviors, a result that has also been reported in other studies (cf. Stern et al., 1995a; Widegren, 1998; Stern et al., 1999; Stern, 2000). On the other hand, only the universalism value played a central role in the German sample. A positive influence of a cluster of Schwartz values that universalism belongs to has been shown for pro-environmental behavior (e.g. Gutierrez Karp, 1996; Schultz & Zelezny, 1998) as well as for pro-environmental attitudes (e.g. Schultz & Zelezny, 1999). This result is understandable given that the universalism value embodies elements “justice”, and “respect and appreciation of nature”. However, in the Chilean sample, universalism does not play a major role.

Therefore, other values might be of greater importance to young Chileans, such as security for activism or tradition for non activist, public-sphere behavior.

With respect to our research question, different predictors proved to be relevant besides universalism and personal norms and for the different types of behavioral commitment in the two samples. Apart from universalism, the security value played a negative role with respect to activism in the German sample. A possible explanation is that those students who appreciate a secure life situation would rather not participate in potentially dangerous activities such as tagging a protest banner to the outside of a company. The positive role of self-direction for a commitment to private-sphere behavior indicates that the protection of biodiversity in the private sphere might serve as an expression of individualism. Possibly, students appreciate to make their own choices, which in turn, serves as a motivation for biodiversity protection. In contrast, the negative influence of stimulation on private-sphere behavior is more difficult to explain. In this regard, some German students may think of some behaviors to protect nature in order to be bourgeois. Those who appreciate a stimulating life would then probably avoid behaviors that they consider to be bourgeois or narrow-minded. Regarding beliefs, the NEP and ascription of responsibility played a significant role for each behavioral type in the German sample, at least in analysis I. A general conviction of humans’ and nature’s interdependence as expressed by the NEP has been described as being conductive for a commitment to protect nature (e.g. Schultz &

Zelezny, 1998; Stern et al., 1995b; for an overview see Dunlap et al., 2000, p. 429).

Ascription of responsibility as a positive predictor can be explained by the logic that those who feel responsible for the protection of biodiversity will also show a higher commitment to do so. Especially with respect to activism, this feeling of responsibility is important for a commitment to protect biodiversity.

The Chilean students’ commitment to non-activist, public sphere behavior is besides personal norms predicted by the tradition value. Nevertheless, tradition has been described as a negative predictor for pro-environmental behavior (Stern et al., 1995a), which contradicts our finding. Our results suggest that certain traditional values in Chile foster a commitment to protect biodiversity.

A commitment to private-sphere behavior by Chilean students can be predicted by personal norms, perceived ability to reduce threat and ascription of responsibility. It therefore seemed as if realistic options to contribute to biodiversity protection are important for fostering a commitment to private-sphere behavior. Moreover, the positive influence of security on the commitment to activism is interesting, as it served as a negative predictor in the German sample. This finding suggests that Chilean students probably note a risk of security through biodiversity loss, which in turn, may motivate a commitment to this radical form of behavior to protect biodiversity. Besides that is the fact that an awareness of egoistic consequences was relevant for all types of behavioral commitment in analysis I suggests the same. In the Chilean sample, a personal consternation seemed to be more important than in the German sample.

Although our study suggests that predictors from the VBN theory are suitable for predicting commitments to protect biodiversity in the present samples, some critical aspects should be considered. Firstly, it should borne in mind that the samples are not representative, neither for Chilean nor German society, nor for students from the two countries. All students were enrolled in secondary education. Therefore, all test persons had access to higher education.

Secondly, it is arguable whether personal norms superceded weaker predictors due to their strong influence. We tried to address this problem by first conducting regressions for each block in analysis I. However, it would be interesting to identify predictors for personal norms for the purpose of investigating influencing factors on the important predictor of personal norms.

A third critical point is a potential cultural bias reflected by the positive response tendency of the Chilean sample. However, as Chilean scores were lower (e.g. for the NEP) or not significantly higher on some constructs (e.g. for an awareness of egoistic consequences), it is more likely that positive responses actually reflect a higher concern and commitment on behalf of the Chilean students. Overall, despite these potential shortcomings, important educational implications can certainly emerge from the results.