Attitudes Toward Natural Environment

:This article examines environment-friendly, or pro-ecological, attitudes: their structure, intensity, and determinants. The study is based on a survey of adult men and women, living in rural communities and small towns in Poland (N = 1,388). Results suggest that attaining a high level of ecological knowledge produces much better pro-environmental behavior than does the expressing of emotionally charged pro-ecological declarations. In addition, this study demonstrates that the most important factor shaping pro-environmental attitudes is having ecologically oriented friends. Other important factors are high level of a citizen's involvement in local political activities, having college education, and being positively oriented toward one's own local community.