Environmental Attitude and Environmental Knowledge

TLDR

Environmental knowledge is assumed to shape attitudes and influence policy, yet research on public knowledge and its link to attitudes remains limited. The study surveys 680 Kentucky residents to examine how environmental knowledge and attitudes relate to sociodemographic factors. Telephone survey data from 680 Kentucky residents were collected to analyze the relationships between environmental knowledge, attitudes, and sociodemographic variables. Respondents scored poorly on environmental knowledge, which was modestly but positively correlated with attitudes, raising concerns for environmental policy.

Abstract

Increased knowledge about the environment is assumed to change environmental attitudes, and both environmental knowledge and attitudes are assumed to influence environmental policy. However, little research has focused on public environmental knowledge or the relationship between knowledge and environmental attitudes. This paper uses telephone survey data from 680 Kentucky residents to address this gap in the literature. Specifically, this analysis examines how environmental knowledge and attitudes are related sociodemographic factors (gender, age, education, income and residence). As in similar research, the respondents to this survey did not score well on the measures of environmental knowledge. Environmental knowledge is found to be consistently and positively related to environmental attitudes, although the relationship is not especially strong. With the correlation of knowledge and attitudes, the low level of environmental knowledge has disturbing implications for environmental policy.