Shop 'til We Drop? Television, Materialism and Attitudes About the Natural Environment

Cultivation theory research exploring the links between television viewing and attitudes about the natural environment has found evidence that heavier viewers of television are more apathetic about environmental issues than their lighter viewing counterparts. Why this relationship occurs has not, however, been explored. The current research, based on a mail survey sent to a 1,000-person national random sample and a 1,000-person random sample of a national environmental organization, finds that the explanation for the relationship between television and a lack of concern for the natural environmental may be explained by materialism. Materialism is found to mediate the relationship between television viewing and attitudes about the natural environment. This finding offers important insights not only into our understanding of cultivation theory but also into our understanding of our relationship with the natural environment at a time when such information has perhaps never been more essential.