Enviromental Attitudes in an Intergenerational Perspective

Abstract

Environmentally oriented attitudes and values can be one of the sources of intergenerational tension or consent. Considering that climate change has become one of the major societal themes today, the issue of intergenerational tension or consent in approach to the environment is crucial. This issue could bring about a generational gap. Questions about intergenerational tensions bring us to age influence on environmental values. The influence of age on environmental values has been researched using the European Values Study (EVS) 1991-2017 in six countries. The cohort/age period effect is differentiated using cross-country comparison, comparison of age groups and cohorts. The results showed that the differences in environmental values are not affected by the cohort effect; age has only a weak influence. The period effect, the change in societies seems to be the major explaining factor. Great differences among European countries were found and this diversity is much higher than the effect of age.