Abstract:
Identifying characteristics of green consumers has proven to be a complex
undertaking for many researchers and no clear consensus yet exists. This is
particularly true of the effect of age on awareness of environmental effects. My aim
in this study is to model the relationship between age and environmental
consciousness using a large sample of over twenty six thousand respondents in 28
countries to a specially designed survey requested by the European Commission.
I use the 2009 Flash Eurobarometer survey (no. 256) designed to address European
attitudes towards sustainable consumption. I choose six questions from the survey in
order to capture measures of environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour.
Using multiple regression analysis, I test for the influence of age on environmental
consciousness after controlling for gender, education level, occupation and urban vs.
rural residence. The results reveal an interesting ‘inverse U’ shape of environmental
consciousness by age for both men and women implying that environmental
consciousness peaks at middle age. Extending the regression into multilevel
modelling, allows me to test for variations in the inverse U shape across countries of
Europe. The results indicate country level variations in both the level and shape of the
curve from one country to another. Although similar in many countries, caution is
required in making gross generalisations about age related sustainable consumption
patterns in Europe as a whole.
