Old and new ideas about the environment and science: an exploratory study

Abstract

Using the framework of social representations theory, this article examines predictors of two belief systems linking beliefs about the environment with beliefs about scientific knowledge. In a survey study with 460 Portuguese respondents, the following four hypotheses were tested: (a) New ecological beliefs were expected to receive higher levels of agreement than old anthropocentric ones, (b) social identities (not only objective positions) were expected to be important predictors of respondents’ beliefs, and (c) the explanatory power of social identity variables was expected to be higher for those beliefs receiving lower levels of agreement (d) and for respondents expressing coherent representations. Analyses reconstructed two belief systems: prudence, linking new ecological ideas with a relativist view of science, and confidence, linking old anthropocentric ideas with a positivist view of science. Results support the hypothesis and show that although these systems can be viewed as contradictory, some respondents manage to agree with both.