Attitudes, Identity, and Environmental Justice: Pro-Environmental Policy Opinions among Black Americans

• In Event: 2429 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Roundtable 3

Abstract

How do perceptions of environmental injustice influence opinions regarding environmental policy? Researchers have found ample evidence for the existence of environmental injustice, or the distribution of environmental harms such that communities of color and low-income communities bear the brunt of exposure. Here, I examine two types of environmental justice perceptions – distributive (i.e., the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens) and procedural (i.e., views regarding how we ought to make decisions regarding such distributions) – and how they influence opinions regarding pro-environmental policy. I also examine how attitudes toward environmental fragility and environmental identity influence pro-environmental policy opinions. My data consist of survey responses from a nationally-representative sample of Black people living in the US. I use OLS regression to examine how justice perceptions and environmental orientation influence pro-environmental policy opinions. I find that perceptions of both distributive and procedural environmental justice prescriptions correlate strongly with pro-environmental policy opinions. Likewise, environmental fragility attitudes—capturing beliefs that severe environmental harms stem from human activity—are strongly related to pro-environmental policy. My findings contribute to the scant literature regarding perceptions of environmental justice and pro-environmental policy opinions, and to considerations of how justice perceptions shape social cognitions more generally.

Author

• Christie L. Parris, Oberlin College