Psychological determinants of nature-protecting behavioral intentions in different social milieus

• People with lower social status not only have less access to natural areas, but also report significantly lower intentions to actively engage in nature protecting behaviors. • The present paper explores psychological mechanisms underlying these findings. For this purpose, social status is assessed in two ways: by education and income and the social milieu concept. • The psychological determinants of nature conservation behaviors are operationalized via an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) with social identity, problem awareness and connection to nature as additional predictors. • Participants assigned to high-status social milieus report on average higher means of the constructs of the extended TPB model than participants assigned to lower status social milieus. • These results indicate that social status influences nature protecting behavioral intentions indirectly through the mediation of psychological constructs. People with lower social status not only have less access to natural areas, but also report significantly lower intentions to actively engage in nature protecting behaviors. The present paper explores psychological mechanisms underlying these findings. For this purpose, social status is assessed in two ways: by education and income and the social milieu concept. The psychological determinants of nature conservation behaviors are operationalized via an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) with social identity, problem awareness and connection to nature as additional predictors. The focus of the empirical analyzes is on the question of how social status influences the expression and structural relationships of extended TPB constructs. The data used comes from a representative German population sample ( N = 2410), retrieved by the 2021 Nature Awareness Study of the Ministry for Environment and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Analyses indicate measurement invariance of the scales used for assessing the nine extended TPB constructs across different social milieus. Furthermore, the structural relationships of the extended TPB model as well as their estimated strength (regression coefficients) could be set equal across the social milieus. However, participants assigned to high-status social milieus report on average higher expressions of the nine constructs of the extended TPB model than participants assigned to lower status social milieus. These results indicate that social status influences nature protecting behavioral intentions indirectly through the mediation of psychological constructs. The practical implication of these results for interventions development are discussed as well as further research needs.