Countries with higher levels of compassion and openness score better when it comes to environmental sustainability, according to a new study.
The study by Jacob Hirsh, from the University of Toronto Mississauga's Institute for Management and Innovation, demonstrates that a country's personality profile can predict its environmental sustainability records.
"We used to think that personality only mattered for individual outcomes but we're finding that population differences in personality characteristics have many large-scale consequences," said Hirsh, who is cross-appointed to UofT's Rotman School of Management.
The new study examined nation-level personality traits from a database of over 12,000 people in 51 countries.
National personality differences, reflecting average trait profiles of a country's citizens, were used to predict scores on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
The EPI, developed at Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks countries across 22 environmental indicators, including Co2 emission levels, use of renewable energy, and ecosystem management.
Higher scores on the EPI, reflecting more environmentally sustainable practices, were positively correlated with national levels of two personality traits: Agreeableness, which reflects empathy and compassion, and Openness, which reflects cognitive flexibility and aesthetic appreciation.
The same relationships were observed even when controlling for national differences in wealth, education, and population size.
These results highlight the psychological factors that can shape a nation's environmental policies, said Hirsh.
"Not only can a person's attitudes about the environment be predicted from his or her personality traits, but the environmental practices of entire nations can be predicted from the personality profiles of their citizens," Hirsh added.
The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
