Environmental Awareness and Causal Behavioral Patterns – Why Do We Make “Wrong” Environmental Choices?

Abstract

Ecological problems and challenges are emphasized nowadays more than ever. The inadequate use of non-renewable sources, the destruction of biodiversity and the greenhouse gas emissions that caused global ecological crises, and the simultaneous increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, are caused almost exclusively by economic growth. Today's biggest challenges in the field of environment are climate change, overpopulation, global warming, pollution, decrease of natural resources, waste disposal and these are related and driven by the choices that humans make in various fields of their activity. For these reasons, the main objective of this paper will be to consider the general ecological awareness, attitudes and causal patterns of citizens’ behavior in the Republic of Serbia in the attempt to examine the causal factors within them. The focus of this paper is on finding the factors that influence citizens' behavior, seen from the psychological, economic and sociological perspective, and the phases that the individual goes through during the decision making process in regards to making environmental choices and finally trying to give an insight on do and in what measure choices humans make, reflect the environmental attitudes they proclaim.