Relationship between psychological characteristics, socioeconomic status and carbon footprint

As climate change drives the need for effective carbon reduction strategies, exploring the interplay between environmental attitudes, socioeconomic status, and CO2 demand can offer valuable insights. While previous research has explored the individual relationships between socioeconomic status and CO2 demand, CO2 demand and environmental psychological traits, and socioeconomic status and environmental attitudes, there is limited research on the interaction of these three factors.

The project examines the connection between all three, namely environmental attitudes, socioeconomic status, and demand for CO2 (carbon emissions/carbon footprint).The hypothesis is that these 3 concepts have a systematic relationship, which can be measured as changes in “carbon elasticity of income”, “carbon elasticity of different psychological characteristics”, and “income elasticity of different psychological characteristics”. A large-scale, cross-cultural online survey will be conducted to gather data and provide a comprehensive understanding of these individual factors. The study is exploratory and will simulate the long-term effects of changes in income and psychological characteristics on CO2 demand using a simple formal framework. A better understanding of these relationships can inform environmental policies and prevent unintended consequences.