Understanding Environmental Advocacy: Interdisciplinary Research and the Role of Cognition

This essay provides a selective review of interdisciplinary research of the bases for and obstacles to effective environmental advocacy. Analyses of the social backdrop of contemporary environmental advocacy are synthesized and research associated with environmental communication is considered in the context of how people process information and appeals associated with the environment. Theory and research involving social cognition is used to indicate ways in which advocates might better promote environmentalism. The analysis concludes with a call for research examining how the perceptions of the self and the environment influence people's understanding of environmental advocacy.