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School of Psychology Faculty of Health Sciences What Does it Mean to be Green in Australia? Status, Identity, and Pro-environmental Engagement Hannah Velure Uren This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Of Curtin University September 2019 Author’s Declaration To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. Human Ethics: The research presented and reported in this thesis was conducted in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 (updated 2018). The proposed research studies received human research ethics approval from the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (EC00262), Approval Number: PSY SP 2014-78. Hannah Velure Uren September 2019 iii Abstract Humans are using up Earth's natural resources faster than they can be replaced. This is causing a wide range of interconnected problems; the climate is changing, the ocean is becoming acidified, lists of endangered species are growing, globally crops are failing. The Earth is becoming unable to provide the services necessary for the survival of humans, animals and plants. Despite widespread recognition of these issues, Australia, an industrialised nation, continues to generate one of the largest ecological footprints per capita in the world. Environmental issues are largely a consequence of human behaviour. The discipline of environmental psychology is well placed to provide the tools to understand the drivers of pro-environmental behaviour and contribute to the design of behaviour change strategies to promote pro-environmental behaviour. While the discipline has contributed a range of useful models to predict behavioural engagement, they tend to focus on individual factors and there has been limited investigation into the social and cultural contexts in which behaviour occurs. A key dilemma in the environmental psychological arena is the attitude-behaviour gap (also known as the value action gap), whereby those holding strong environmental attitudes do not necessarily engage in pro-environmental behaviours. Therefore, the starting aim in this thesis was to explore the socio-cultural and contextual factors which might be leading to the gap between environmental attitudes and behaviour. Chapter One, serves as an overview of the thesis. I set out its aims, structure, goals and significance. Then in Chapter Two, I provide a literature review of the current state of research into the promotion of pro-environmental behaviour. This includes the individualised approach, narrow set of philosophical lenses and a tendency to emphasise consumption rather than conservation. In Chapter Three, I present the findings of a set of in-depth qualitative interviews with 28 Western Australian residents who self-identified as pro-environmental. Using the emerging futures methodology Causal Layered Analysis. Findings suggested that there was a need to investigate the conditions in which pro-environmental behaviour was enacted for reputational rewards rather than an intrinsic desire to ‘do good’ for the planet. Based on the findings reported in Chapter Three, a second phase was designed to explore the social status associated with pro-environmental behaviours. I conducted a two-stage v online survey which investigated the relationship between pro-environmental identity, perceived social status and pro-environmental behaviour. The findings from this research are presented in Chapters Five, Six and Seven. In Chapter Four, I present an in-depth literature review of pro-environmental behaviour, environmental identity, and the applications of social status in the environmental psychology space. This sets the scence for the empirical research results presented in Chapters Five, Six and Seven. In Chapter Five, I set out to understand whether pro-environmental identity should be considered as two-dimensional: that is as having both intrinsic (self-identity) and extrinsic (public-identity) dimensions. Findings suggest that there may be some underlying differences in people's motivations to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. In Chapter Six, I explored the factors that contribute to the perceived social status of pro- environmental behaviour. I tested whether behaviours that were costly, effortful, and visible were more likely to hold social status. Findings indicate that pro-environmental behaviours should be designed in a way that communicates to others that they are effortful and educated and ensure that the behaviour is publicly visible. Finally, in Chapter Seven, the motivations and perceived barriers to pro-environmental engagement amongst green voters and traditional voters were explored. Findings suggests that when pro-environmental behaviour is costly and visible, pro-environmental behaviours hold attributes that appeal to those who do not prioritise environmentalism. The findings in this thesis suggest that there is a need to take a contextualised approach to understand engagement in pro-environmental behaviour. People are motived to engage in pro-environmental behaviour not only for the sake of the environment itself but for self- serving reasons. Promoting pro-environmental behaviour using social status motives might be effective in the short-term but should be avoided as a long-term strategy. In the longer term, there is a need to rebrand and redesign collective behaviours such that they signal that the actor has incurred costs and is engaging in an educated action. This will allow for transformative change rather than individual piecemeal action. vi Statement of Contributors and Structure of Thesis This thesis was supervised by Associate Professor Lynne Roberts, Dr Peta Dzidic, Dr Zoe Leviston and Associate Professor Brian Bishop. I warrant that I have obtained, where necessary, permission from the copyright owners to use my own published journal articles in which the copyright is held by a publisher. Letters of attribution and approval from Taylor and Francis for reproduction of an accepted manuscript for can be found as appendices at the end of the thesis. vii Preamble This thesis is presented as a series of chapters that have been written in manuscript format. Two empirical papers have been published and are presented as Chapter Three and Chapter Six. References for in-text citations in all chapters can be found at the end of this thesis. Given that these papers were written as independent works, some definitions and themes are presented multiple times throughout the thesis. viii ix Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... v Statement of Contributors and Structure of Thesis ............................................................... vii Preamble ............................................................................................................................... viii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ xvii List of Key Terms ................................................................................................................... xix Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... xxi Personal Statement............................................................................................................. xxiii Chapter One: General Introduction and Thesis Overview .................................................... 25 Research Aims ....................................................................................................................... 28 Research Design and Thesis Structure .................................................................................. 29 Significance ........................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter Two: Literature Review- Being Green in Australia .................................................. 34 Psychology’s contribution to sustainable societies .............................................................. 42 What is lacking? .................................................................................................................... 48 Summary. .............................................................................................................................. 49 Chapter Three: Green Tinted Glasses ................................................................................... 51 Abstract… .............................................................................................................................. 52 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 53 Methods… ............................................................................................................................. 57 Findings... .............................................................................................................................. 62 Discussion.............................................................................................................................. 69 Chapter Four: Literature

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