Appendix A – Study 2 Supplemental Materials

Pro-Environmental Attitude Strength scale

WHAT ARE YOUR BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ENVIRONMENT?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Please answer as HONESTLY as possible.

Please indicate your agreement with the following two statements using the provided scale.

Do not agree / Somewhat agree / Completely agree
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

1. To what extent do you agree that human activities associated with current lifestyles have a negative impact on the state of the environment?

2. To what extent do you agree that humans need to take action to reduce their impact on the environment?

Please respond to the following six questions using the provided scale.

Not at all / Somewhat / Very much
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

3. How important to you personally are environmental issues?

4. How central is your attitude toward the environment to your self-image/self-concept?

5. How representative of your values is your attitude toward the environment?

6. How knowledgeable are you about environmental issues?

7. How likely are you to change your opinion about the environment? (reverse-scored)

8. How sure are you that your opinion about the environment is right?

Frequency of Recent Environmentally Relevant Actions scale

WHAT ACTIONS DO YOU DO ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Please answer as HONESTLY as possible.

Thinking about all of your activities and actions over the past month, please estimate how many times you've performed the following actions. Indicate your response using the drop-down menu.

  1. Used an electric clothes dryer
  2. Used a clothesline or drying rack (air dry clothing)
  3. Tossed compostable or recyclable waste in the garbage bin
  4. Turned off the water while brushing teeth
  5. Washed fruits and vegetables in a bowl (instead of under running water)
  6. Brought and used reusable bags when shopping
  7. Discarded paper without using both sides of the sheet
  8. Ran the clothes/dish washing machine even though it wasn't full
  9. Used the double-sided option to print/copy on both sides of the page
  10. Purchased local foods
  11. Opted to walk, cycle, skate, etc. instead of riding in a bus/car over a short distance (< 3km)
  12. Took a bath or a long shower (> 10 min.)
  13. Washed dishes under running water (instead of in a plugged sink)
  14. Took plastic bags at the grocery/store check-out (instead of no bags or reusable bags)
  15. Took the time to properly separate waste into the garbage, recycling, and composting bins
  16. Bought food or merchandise without checking where it was grown or manufactured
  17. Took a short shower (< 10 min.)
  18. Rode in a bus or car to travel a short distance (< 3km)

Response options:Integersranging from 0 to 20

Scoring key:Pro-environmental actions— 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17

Counter-environmental actions—1, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18

Results table

Covariance Matrix Used for the Study 2 Path Analyses

Variable / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
1. Autonomous motivation / 1.55 / 0.40 / -0.85 / 0.05 / -0.07 / 0.85 / 0.55 / -0.83
2. Controlled motivation / 0.92 / 0.20 / 0.01 / 0.09 / 0.23 / 0.39 / -0.01
3. Amotivation / 1.89 / -0.02 / 0.03 / -0.49 / -0.23 / 0.98
4. Private Self-Consciousness / 0.33 / 0.09 / 0.02 / 0.11 / 0.03
5. Public Self-Consciousness / 0.37 / -0.03 / 0.05 / 0.14
6. Attitude strength / 1.07 / 0.38 / -0.54
7. Psychological discomfort / 2.41 / -0.31
8. Relative frequency of counter-environmental actionsa / 2.01

Note. N = 282. Covariances are above the diagonal and variances are on the diagonal in bolded characters.

aThe scores were multiplied by 5 to rescale the covariance matrix.