Explaining popular support for environmental protection - A multilevel analysis of 50 nations

The differences in public support for environmental protection among individuals from 50 nations were investigated. Support was determined by the willingness of individuals to make financial sacrifices to protect the environment. The results from multilevel analyses indicated that significant variance exists within and among nations in the level of support. The contextual-level variance was to a substantial degree explained by individual-level variables, capturing compositional effects. Income, postmaterialism, educational attainment, environmental involvement, and age related directly to support for environmental protection. Contextual-level variables-GDP, GDP growth, and average postmaterialist value-orientation of publics-also related directly to levels of support among nations and explained a significant part of the contextual-level variance. The findings are congruent with the affluence hypothesis and Inglehart's subjective values hypothesis. They also point to the necessity of simultaneously assessing the effects of individual- and contextual-level characteristics on proenvironmental attitudes in cross-national research.