Geographically varying associations between personality and pro-environmental behaviors across the USA

Comprehensively evaluating the relationship between personality and pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., speaking with friends/strangers about environmental issues, attending pro-environmental rallies, and recycling) with both broad and fine conceptualizations of personality (i.e., higher-order factor, lower-order factor, and nuance levels) while also accounting for geographically varying associations is critical for developing an understanding of why people may behave pro-environmentally in various geographical contexts. To examine this, we (1) tested the utility of the SAPA Personality Inventory-5 (SPI-5) factors, SPI-27 lower-order interstitial factors, and SPI-135 nuances/items for predicting pro-environmental behaviors and cross-validated these models, (2) evaluated how the relationship for higher-order and lower-order personality factors with pro-environmental behaviors vary across geographic locations in the United States at the ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area) level using multilevel modeling, and (3) assessed how geographically varying slopes related to average levels of pro-environmental behaviors within ZCTAs. We found an empirically identified selection of thirty SPI-135 items predicted pro-environmental behaviors better than the SPI-5 and SPI-27 collectively, and that the full SPI-135 items had the highest predictive utility. Additionally, in ZCTAs with higher average levels of pro-environmental behaviors, stronger associations between higher levels of agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness with higher levels of pro-environmental behaviors were observed.