The impact of values on sustainable behaviour – A study among Russian and Finnish university students

Schwartz’s (1992, 1994) classification of human values is applied when comparing a group of Finnish and Russian university students in terms of their environmentally and socially benign orientation, which is measured by including all three dimensions of sustainability in the measures of consumers’ self-reported travelling preferences. A total of 872 responses were included in the data, which were analyzed by using K-mean cluster analysis and a principal component analysis (PCA). Differences between Finnish and Russian students were compared using independent samples t-test with equal variances assumed. The respondents divided evenly into two clusters, which could be named according to Schwarz as Self-Enhancers and Self-Transcenders. The majority of Finnish respondents (67%) were Self-Transcenders, and among Russian students the majority were Self-Enhancers (84%). The findings indicate that among the Russian students the concept of sustainability is understood as an ecological question, but for Finns, it is a comprehensive concept covering ecological, economic and social aspects. In the Finnish sample the value based groups seemed to explain the sustainability concerns, but in the Russian sample, the value based group explained only the attitude towards ecological sustainability.