Willingness to pay for the environment : the role of social status and of prosocial orientation

Based on the 2020 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) IV Environment Module, this paper examines how individual characteristics influence the willingness to pay to protect the environment. We contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of social status: the higher respondents place themselves on the social scale, the more they are willing to pay; and of prosocial orientation: the more willing respondents are to take action for the environment independently of others, the more they are willing to pay. We underline that the impact of social status, i.e., respondents' subjective perception of their position on the social scale, remains significant even after controlling for income and education levels. Our results suggest that, in order to strengthen individuals' willingness to pay for the environment, two types of policies may be effective: (1) policies aimed at influencing subjective social status and its determinants -for example, exposing professional groups to narratives framing their position as socially valued, reducing perceived inequalities, enhancing individuals' sense of control over life events, and fostering orientation toward long-term planning; and (2) policies aimed at shaping prosocial orientation, that is, convincing individuals that personal actions are meaningful even when they are not widely adopted by others. Besides, based on our results, climate policies can be successful when imposing net costs on the following groups: individuals who rank themselves in the top 40% of the population (social status); the 50% of individuals who agree to act without waiting for others to do so (prosocial orientation). By contrast, climate policies that impose net costs on the complementary segments of the population are likely to face disapproval.