The Land Ethic Realized: Some Social Psychological Explanations for Changing Environmental Attitudes1

Changing environmental attitudes from an economic to a moral orientation are discussed in terms of the activation of moral norms to guide and evaluate behavior. In controlled experimental situations, increasing levels of two variables (awareness of the negative interpersonal consequences and ascription of responsibility) increased the likelihood that moral norms influenced behavior. Changes in the social system are discussed which have increased both our awareness of, and the actual adverse consequences stemming from, a strict economic approach to the environment. Other modifications have made decision‐makers responsible for these consequences. These changes have fostered the current moral fervor concerning the natural environment.