A new look at the racial differences in environmental attitudes: the roles of risk perception and group consciousness

Abstract

Racial minorities bear disproportionate share of pollution and environmental risk. A key solution to such disparities is to increase their participation in the environmental policymaking process. In this article, I test various theories of environmental attitudes and participation—with a special focus on risk perception and group consciousness—on Whites and Minorities and use them to explain the racial differences in environmental concern and participatory intentions. Using survey data, I find that risk perception is positively associated with environmental concern and participatory intentions for both Whites and Minorities. I also find that many theories of environmental attitudes apply to Whites and Minorities differently. While the traditional explanations of political orientation and social connectedness apply to Whites, their patterns are less clear for Minorities. Instead, group consciousness plays an exceptionally important role for racial minorities, and it accounts for much of racial minorities’ higher levels of concern and participatory intentions compared with Whites. This study provides new perspectives to understand the racial differences in environmental concern and participation and has important implications for the environmental justice research and movement and environmental public policy.