HUMAN DISPOSITION TOWARD HAZARDS - TESTING THE ENVIRONMENTAL APPRAISAL INVENTORY

This paper explores the nature of the response to environmental hazards as measured by an expanded Environmental Appraisal Inventory (EAI). Developed by Schmidt and Gifford, the EAI focuses on how people evaluate or appraise environmental hazards. The current study expands that work, testing the EAI on a larger population, adding a human-generated environmental hazard (small quantities of non-regulated hazardous materials), and developing a Responsibility scale to assess personal perceptions of responsibility for environmental hazards. Testing the EAI, this study explores the relationship between environmental disposition scales and people's commitment to safeguard the environment. Most respondents seem to believe they are personally immune to the effects of threats to the environment. In addition, they generally feel both a lack of control over and responsibility for the 28 threats listed, despite the fact that more than half of the threats are human-generated. In all cases, however, the more committed respondents were more likely to take actions to safeguard the environment. Using the EAI as a measurement for understanding the cognitive-relational interface between people and the environment can provide insights into how people respond to environmental crises.