While dealing with the climate crisis, psychology can provide crucial insights about mechanisms determining individual’s attitudes and (arguably more importantly) behavior towards the environment. The concept of time perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) is especially relevant – when deciding whether to act pro-environmentally, people often choose between long-term and short-term interests. A meta-analysis investigating the relationship between time perspective and environmental engagement shows that those oriented more toward future perspective tend to have more pro-environmental attitudes and behavior (Milfont, Wilson, & Diniz, 2012).
However, all previous studies use a time perspective questionnaire that measures future orientation as one-dimensional. Carelli, Wiberg and Wiberg (2011) extended the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory by dividing future orientation into two independent factors – negative and positive one. We, therefore, decided to examine this subject further by using a new extended S-ZTPI questionnaire and by focusing on particular pro-environmental behavior – zero waste lifestyle. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the relationship between zero waste lifestyle and future positive/negative orientation differs.
Our sample included 120 participants aged between 18 and 36. All participants completed an online questionnaire consisting of an abbreviated S-ZTPI, a zero waste inventory, one open-ended question and demographic questions. Our results show that people oriented toward negative future perspective tend to be more zero waste active (r = 0.280, p = 0.002), whereas those oriented toward positive future do not. Further analysis revealed that this relationship only applies to women. When asking participants to list most important global problems (an open-ended question), those zero waste active mentioned mainly ecology topics, whilst those less involved in zero waste behavior mentioned mainly politics.
Our research contributes to deeper understanding of the relationship between future time perspective and pro-environmental behavior such as zero waste lifestyle.