Research project: The distribution and dynamics of UK citizens' environmental attitudes, behaviours and actions

The distribution and dynamics of UK citizens’ environmental attitudes, behaviours and actions is a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under the Secondary Data Analysis Initiative and runs from January 2013 to June 2014.

The project uses Understanding Society, the new large scale UK longitudinal household panel to analyse the environmental attitudes, behaviours, and actions of people living in the UK.

The project will:

• analyse similarities in pro-environmental behaviours across household members, including children
• identify the key factors influencing the overall environmental behaviour/impact of the household
•  investigate the impact of changing family structure, changing economic conditions and changes in the local environment (neighbourhood or region) on energy use
• explore the impact of environmental ‘events’ and media coverage of those events on attitudes and behaviours

The research aims to provide policy makers seeking to legislate for and to encourage 'environmentally-friendly' attitudes and behaviours with a clearer understanding of what factors in people’s lives influence and shape how green they are in what they think and what they do.

Southampton contact: Dr Ben Anderson