Social perception of the behaviour of Spaniards on environmental issues

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between individual behaviour and social perception regarding Spaniards’ behaviour on environmental issues in the theoretical context of the cognitive biases of false consensus and false uniqueness. A survey carried out by the CIS (2005, study no. 2590) on 2,490 citizens from a representative sample of the Spanish population was used. The results showed that individuals with a moderate frequency of proenvironmental behaviours tended to project their own behaviour on all Spaniards. However, individuals with a more extreme kind of conduct, because of high frequency of pro-environmental behaviours, tended to attribute to others a different conduct from their own. These individuals considered themselves to be different from the rest of the population. It was also found how the differences in social perception of the behaviour of Spaniards on environmental matters are associated with different perceptions of environmental deterioration and concern for the environment.