Social Class and Mass Environmental Beliefs

The previous literature on the socioeconomic correlates of environmental concern places great stress on the middle class being more supportive of environmental agendas than the working or lower socioeconomic class. We argue that certain methodological problems in this research and the theoretical implications of the proenvironmental middle-class generalization warrant an empirical reconsideration. We then find that social class indicators explain relatively little variance in environmental attitudes accounted for by "class." However, education is not related to environmental beliefs in an unambiguous linear fashion. Education is subordinate to age as a predictor of environmental attitudes, and much of the gross effect of education is the spurious result of the generally high educational backgrounds of young adults. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research for sociology of environmental problems theory.