Transformative Environmental Threats: Behavioral and Attitudinal Change Five Years After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

• In Event: 370 - Section on Environment and Technology Paper Session. Advances in Micro-Level Research

Abstract

Do environmental disasters have long term effects on people’s attitudes and behaviors toward the environment? What aspects of environmental disasters are most salient when it comes to mobilization and attitudinal change? The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, provides an ideal case study for evaluating whether experiencing a major environmental problem results in any political, lifestyle, or attitudinal changes. Using survey data collected in two affected coastal counties around the five-year anniversary of the spill, we find that many residents reported mobilizing effects from the spill: over two-thirds of respondents participated in some form of political action, about half engaged in environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes, and about half of the respondents reported more concern for the environment. Interestingly, the strongest predictor of these changes was whether residents were affected emotionally by the disaster, like feeling anger and distress, which saw positive, significant effects across all measures. Additionally, perceiving that the oil spill damaged personal or community health was important for fueling activism, viewing the oil spill as causing harm to the environment motivated personal environmentally-friendly behaviors, and feeling that the spill disrupted social and community relations was associated with higher levels of environmental concern. These results suggest that directly experiencing an environmental threat can motivate political action and attitudinal change and that certain elements of the experience may produce more pronounced effects than others.

Authors

• Kelly Bergstrand, University of Texas, Arlington

• Brian Mayer, University of Arizona