| Prior research has explored the relationship betweenvalues, attitudes about environmental issues, and pro-envi-ronmental behavior. These studies have shown a consistentpattern of results ? individuals who value self-transcendentlife goals tend to care more about environmental problems,favor environmental protection over economic growth, andengage in more proenvironmental behavior. In contrast, indi-viduals who value self-enhancing life goals tend to hold moreegoistic concerns about environmental issues, tend to favoreconomic growth over environmental protection, and tend toengage in fewer environmental behaviors. Research onAmerican values suggests that overall, people in the U.S.tend to hold strong self-enhancing values. These self-enhancing values have largely been considered incongruouswith the values that lead to environmental concern and toenvironmental behavior. In this paper, we synthesize the pastresearch on the relationship between values and environmen-tal behavior. Lessons from the Biodiversity Project are usedto illustrate efforts to create effective value-based environ-mental messages. |