Mutually Reinforcing or Excluding? How Compatibility Perceptions of Economy and Environment Link to Issue-Related Attitudes and Media Use

Abstract With growing discussions about the possible contribution of economic growth to increasingly severe environmental crises, scholars have called for greater attention to public opinion on the possible tradeoffs between continuous growths and protecting the environment. While ample research investigates public opinion on the environment-economy dilemma, so far, the role of the media environment has not been considered. Using a scale for perceived compatibility of economic growth and environmental protection, we study how compatibility perceptions relate to individual attitudes about economic growth and environmental protection as well as to individual media consumption. Our results based on a representative survey among Dutch citizens (N = 1,863) indicate opposing mechanisms stemming from economic and environmental factors with an overall greater importance of the latter. We discuss the need to further explore the role of media for compatibility perceptions.