Zimmeck, Carlotta (2024) From Climate Change Denial to Veganism: The Role of Environmental Minorities in Promoting Sustainable Practices. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Despite pro-environmental attitudes becoming increasingly popular over time, only a few people actually adapt their behavior accordingly, meaning people acting sustainably mostly remain a minority. While societal change was traditionally assumed to be predominantly caused by majorities, recent research suggests that minorities can be crucial in instigating change. This study investigates the influence of vegan minorities in a social context with or without an opposing minority. Three conditions were investigated with either a vegan present, a climate change denier, or both. We hypothesized that the presence of an opposing minority would increase the influence of the vegan minority, with value in diversity acting as a potential moderator. The sample includes 111 participants mostly from Germany. The results show that the vegan minority was not perceived as deviant, whereas the presence of the denier led to the group being perceived as polarized when opposing the vegan, but also when being the only minority present. Generally, the influence of both minorities on sustainable attitudes and intentions, vegan policy support, and vegan attitudes and intentions was not significant, nor moderated by value in diversity, as initially hypothesized. Value in similarity was not found to moderate the effect of the condition either, however the higher the value in similarity, the higher were sustainable and vegan attitudes, as well as support for vegan policies. Overall, the findings highlight the complex dynamics of minority influence in environmental contexts.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Jans, L. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Jul 2024 11:03 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Jul 2024 11:03 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3995 |
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