4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES
The primary purpose of this study was to determine the level of environmental awareness
globally. Hence, the research questions were:
What is the level of environmental awareness in the countries included in the study?
o How the elements of environmental awareness (motivation, knowledge, skills)
vary among these countries?
o How national wealth, level of education, societal equality, and national values
correlate with the environmental awareness in a country?
What is the (perceived) state of the environment in the same countries?
What is the (perceived) trend of the state of the environment in the countries?
Based on the literature on environmental awareness and its relation with other measurable
indicators, we formulated a set of hypotheses. They were developed keeping in mind the three
basic elements of environmental awareness: motivation, knowledge and skills.
Franzen and Meyer (2009) connect environmental concern with the respondent’s subjective
perception of the condition of the local environment. In their view, worse quality of
environment leads to higher environmental concern. Furthermore, Inglehart (see Dietz et al.
2005) found that mass support for environmental protection tends to be the greatest in
countries that have relatively severe environmental problems like air and water pollution.
Moreover, Knight and Messer (2012) came to the conclusion that ‘environmental degradation
is positively associated with environmental concern expressed as willingness to pay higher
taxes.’ Even though environmental concern and environmental awareness are, by their
definitions, inter-correlated, the concept of environmental awareness entails much more than
just environmental concern. Therefore, it is not logical to expect a similar (positive)
relationship between worse quality of (local) environment and higher environmental
awareness. As we see it, the relationship between the (perceived) state of the environment
and (national) environmental awareness is very complex. However, the process description in
figure 3 demonstrates how improved environmental awareness should, all other
circumstances being favourable, lead to improvements in the state of the environment.
Therefore, we hypothesize that: