Environmental belief systems - United States, Brazil, and Mexico

This study analyzes responses from 505 undergraduates from the United States, Mexico, and Brazil to the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale. This instrument typically measured the separation from nature (Human Exception Paradigm) from the NEP as a dichotomy. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a trifactorial structure emerged from the Brazilians and Mexicans and a bifactorial from the U.S. sample. The United States held the most dichotomous view, the Mexicans were also dichotomous but less extreme,and the Brazilians seemed to see no need for a separation between nature and growth.