I was a vegetarian for a long time. While I grew up with Buddhist values and care towards living beings, it may have partly informed my decision to be vegetarian but I can certainly say that was not primarily driven by my concern about the environment nor my knowledge about veganism during then. When I went to Norway at 17, I met students from diverse cultures and they immediately assumed I did not eat meat because I was “passionate about environmental causes”. I did not correct them. After two years of living and travelling across Europe and then coming to the states, I noticed how different upbringing, values and cultures shaped our perspectives, and concern towards environmental issues was one of them. I noticed Western cultures were quite “progressive” towards mitigating environmental issues whether it is their recycling habits, consuming organic food or consistently engaging in outdoors or nature-based activities. Whether in Vermont or Norway, I always felt excluded from the discussion on environmental efforts while simultaneously experiencing shame and guilt due to not being able to share the environmental concern to the same extent.
Therefore, in this paper I will explore how culture and access to natural resources shape conservation attitudes among children and young adults. This paper will also include the role of emotions, future thinking capacities, and the efficacy belief in mediating the relationship between culture and attitude towards nature. Lastly, the paper will offer some intervention to support youth and individuals from eastern cultures to develop conservative attitudes towards nature without feeling shame and guilt.
In a study published by Milfont and Schultz (2015) which explores environmental concerns, risk perception and pro-environment behaviour among 78 countries, they argue that environmental issues are international concerns that are beyond geographical and cultural borders. They also note that attitude and view towards the environment are also “culturally patterned” meaning, there are a lot of cultural factors that shape differences in our perceptions of environment and environmental concerns.
With emotion such as pride and guilt, Milfont and Schultz (2015) explores its effect on driving purchasing behavior as indicators of either conservative or neglect attitude towards nature. They found that across both individualistic and collectivist cultures, attitudes towards nature and purchasing behaviour was shaped by their expected pride or guilt upon making environmentally friendly choices or not, yet the effect was found much stronger in individuals from individualistic cultures compared to collectivist backgrounds. This is interesting and points to the extent to which personal values and emotions across collectivist and individualist culture influence consumer choices and their attitude towards the environment.
Findings from the current study are directly linked with my experience. Despite the guilt I carry in regards to my negligence on environmental issues, I do not always engage in most environmentally friendly habits or ethical consumer choice. I believe this is because growing up in a collectivist culture, social norms and collective habits shapes our behaviour and environmental attitude instead of our personal feelings or guilt. Whereas in Western and individualistic countries, people are less likely to care about the general societal trends or their neighbor’s purchasing decisions and engage in habits which align closer with their personal values, thus informing and reinforcing their conservative or negligent attitude towards the natural world.
In addition to emotions and personal values, another factor which shapes one’s environmental attitude is one’s perception of time. In a study conducted by Milfont and Nicol (2013), they explored how individuals’ capacity to evaluate consequences of our present action in future shapes their environment related behavior. They highlighted previous research in their literature review which states that individuals with greater future time perspective have greater concern towards the environment (Milfont & Gouveia, 2006) and are more likely to make environmentally friendly decisions (Joireman et al., 2001).
Similarly findings from Bosone and colleagues study (2025) investigating the role of optimistic future thinking and efficacy beliefs on pro environment beliefs align with previous research on the significant role future thinking in shaping environmental friendly attitudes. Additionally, beyond “future thinking”, Bosone & colleagues also highlights how individuals’ capacity to imagine alternate (optimistic) environmental reality in future is essential in driving their pro environmental behaviours. Their study cites Wright and colleague’s study (2020) and refers to this process as “environmental cognitive alternatives” or ECA.
In another research by Milfont and colleagues (2012), they noted there is greater association in the role of future time perception on environmental behavior compared to those who had present and past time perspective. Across all these studies exploring the role of time perception, culture plays a significant role in informing our conception and perspective of time. Bosone and colleagues study (2015) acknowledges the role of culture and explores how it shapes individual and collective environmental intentions through time perspective as mediators. While future thinking is one of the determinants of environmental attitude and behaviour in general, they witnessed greater association between time perspective and future thinking among participants from the United States compared to China. They alluded this finding to the varying effects of time perception on their behaviour between cultures. An explanation could be due to other factors like media narrative, community exposure and upbringing, education in driving their sentiment towards the environment instead of personal values and future thinking capacities.
Looking back at my personal experience growing up in a collectivist society – India, I grew up in a relatively laidback environment when it comes to productivity and hustle culture. This is noticeable across our attitudes towards the future along with the pressure to enjoy the present and “let things flow”. While we discussed the (near) future, it was not prominent, nor did we ever talk about the future in the light of environmental changes. I can attest and see how this culture has crafted my attitude towards environmental causes but there are other innumerable factors that define my concern and attitude towards the natural environment. This finding also reveals the nuances and complexities of the autonomy for individuals in a collective society in their decision making process, unlike Western and more individualistic culture where the determinants of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours are much simpler and straightforward.
Another factor from the same study (Bosone et al., 2015) also discovered positive association between efficacy beliefs on their contribution to the environment (measured on a 6-item likert scale) and pro environmental behaviour. Similar to the conception of time, efficacy belief is also shaped by the culture. Bridging psychological research with my personal experience, I believe access to nature plays a significant role in defining our efficacy beliefs. This is because exposure or the lack thereof with access to nature instills either an optimistic or pessimistic view about the environment in future. For example, growing up in a densely populated city where blue sky was a rare sight, I never really believed the natural world would heal. With every festival and fireworks, air pollution got worse and buying packaged water became a norm and I simply did not think my contribution to any environmental choice will make the situation any better. Therefore, I became really pessimistic. It was not until I came to Norway, I saw the bright blue sky for the first time and experienced the beauty of mountains, the peace, empty spaces and animal grazing which was already the norm for many Western countries or had some exposure to. After conversing with Scandinavian students, I saw their passion in environmental activism which I simply perceived to be an unachievable goal. Little did I realise my pessimism towards environmental change due to the lack of access also explained my behaviour and environmental attitude.
I am wrapping this essay by proposing three different interventions that can support youths from Eastern and collectivist cultures (who might not have access to the benefits of the natural world) to develop a more positive attitude and care towards the environmental issue. Educating youths and children about the benefits of conservation efforts instead of negative consequences. The reason for why introducing positive change is more beneficial is because, (usually) their dominant culture and context already serves as an example of consequence due to the lack of concern towards the environment. Instead of letting their context shape their pessimistic attitude which could translate to their behavioral choices, caregivers should serve as models in engaging in pro-environmental behavior such as recycling, consuming less meat, and reducing plastic consumption with younger generations.
Moreover, parents and caregivers should compliment and encourage youths when they engage in pro-environmental behaviors. Doing so contributes to fostering an environmentally friendly culture. In collectivist cultures, dominant social culture significantly influences individual behavior and therefore, redefining cultural value will force individuals to affirm the dominant culture and thus develop concern towards environmental issues. While social conformity is one reason, encouraging pro-environmental behavior elicits pride reactions among youth. According to the research by Milfont & Schultz (2015), expected pride was one of the motivators to engage in proenvironmental habits. This will also influence youths to build more optimistic attitudes and beliefs about the future and thus improve their efficacy beliefs too.
On a systemic level, governments and institutions should invest or mandate at least one or two nature based outdoor programs annually. While it is more common for Western countries to send children in outdoor camps or scouting programs, there are rarely any structured programs that are safe, accessible and affordable for young children in eastern countries to join outside of school. Therefore, investment in nature and outdoor education will provide them with exposure they did not have and allow them to imagine the possibility of future in a positive light and thus motivating them to engage in positive environmental activities.
Lastly and one of the most personally applicable interventions is to actively seek resources about environmental movements or experiences that are initiated, led or written by members from your shared backgrounds. This approach allowed me to feel included in the bigger environmental movement, felt heard and comfortable at the pace at which my concern towards environmental issues was evolving. Reading experiences of low income individuals, people of color raised in urban setting and their journey of reconnecting with nature, I witnessed a myself in these stories and the struggles they navigated to feel included in the natural world, the discourse while simultaneously overcoming personal guilt which served as a greatest barrier to try in the first place.
References:
Milfont, T. L., & Schultz, P. W. (2015). Culture and the natural environment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 8, 194–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.009
Arnocky, S., Milfont, T. L., & Nicol, J. R. (2013). Time perspective and sustainable behavior. Environment and Behavior, 46(5), 556–582. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916512474987
Milfont, T. L., & Gouveia, V. V. (2006). Time perspective and values: An exploratory study of their relations to environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 26(1), 72–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2006.03.001
Milfont, T. L., Wilson, J., & Diniz, P. (2012). Time perspective and environmental engagement: A meta‐analysis. International Journal of Psychology, 47(5), 325-334. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2011.647029
Joireman, J. A., Lasane, T. P., Bennett, J., Richards, D., & Solaimani, S. (2001). Integrating social value orientation and the consideration of future consequences within the extended norm activation model of proenvironmental behaviour. The British Journal of Social Psychology., 40(Pt 1), 133–155. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466601164731
Bosone, L., Rees, J., Feraco, T., Chevrier, M., Maggio, S., Zenasni, F., & Bamberg, S. (2025). Acting together for a positive future: a cross-cultural investigation of how environmental cognitive alternatives and efficacy beliefs contribute to individual and collective biodiversity-conservation intentions. Futures, 103720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2025.103720
Bamberg, S., Diehl, Y., Weber, T., Christine, V. D., Mues, A. W., & Schmidt, P. (2023). Testing the cross-cultural invariance of an extended theory of planned behaviour in predicting biodiversity-conserving behavioural intentions. https://www.hsbi.de/publikationsserver/record/4410
Wright, J. D., Schmitt, M. T., Mackay, C. M., & Neufeld, S. D. (2020). Imagining a sustainable world: Measuring cognitive alternatives to the environmental status quo. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 72, 101523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101523