The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) in Romania. Some Empirical Findings
The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) in Romania. Some Empirical Findings

Summary/Abstract: The present article provides an insight into Romanians’ environmental worldview, on the basis of a shortened, six item version of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale. The data are delivered from the 2008 wave of the European Value Survey (EVS), which included, for the first time, the NEP module. The results of the analysis suggest that the overall endorsement of the NEP in Romania is one of the lowest among the EVS participant countries and Romania provides also one of the highest percents of ‘don’t know’ answers regarding the NEP items. The six items do not consistently hold together and the factor analysis yields a two factor solution, with items saturating two components: one corresponding to a ‘humans over nature’ facet and another corresponding to the ‘fragility of earth’s balance and its carrying capacity’. The comparative inter-country analysis suggests that in the case of all the other European countries, the NEP items are split into the same categories as in Romania. Thus, the major difference between Romania and the other European states consists not so much in the different structure of the NEP, but rather in the much lower endorsement of the NEP view, particularly its facets of anti-anthropocentrismand anti-human-exemptionalism such as they are currently enacted in Romania. Among the positional factors, residence in large urban settings is the most important predictor of the unequivocal endorsement of the NEP, while education is the most important factor which significantly increases the likelihood to formulate an opinion in relation with NEP items.

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