Befragung der Schweizer Bevölkerung zur Umwelt - 2007
The last detailed nationwide Swiss survey on attitudes toward the environment,
perception of environmental problems, knowledge on environmental issues and various
aspects of related behavior such as recycling, consumption, mobility and energy use -
along with the respondent households' socio-demographic characteristics - was
conducted in 1994. A replication of this survey after roughly ten years is intended (1) to
analyze changes in attitudes toward the environment and related behavior and take stock
of the current situation. The goal of the project is not, however, limited to replication.
Two new question modules will provide empirical answers to research questions on (2)
environmental justice and (3) the dependence of strategic environmental decision-making
on the time horizon considered.
The second module, environmental justice, will initially deal with the subjective
perception of environmental stressors as a function of a household's socioeconomic
status, or with the relationship most often examined in similar studies. However, we also
intend to examine the relationship between "objective" environmental stressors- those
measurable with a high degree of precision- and the respondents' subjective experience
of stress. We will therefore link data on air pollution and noise exposure obtained from
governmental agencies that use Geo Information Systems with subjective responses from
every household. While previous surveys have often emphasized capturing "symbolic"
behavior with regard to the environment, we will adopt a resource-oriented approach,
focusing especially a household's "strategic" decision-making vis-à-vis the environment.
Such decisions exert long-term effects on a household's energy consumption and
mobility, and include those on residential location, the size of the residence and
ownership of a motor vehicle. We are also interested in whether people are aware of the
full costs and benefits of actions whose consequences will be apparent only much later.
We hypothesize that a person's decision-making time horizon can play a role in
determining whether such cost-effective environmentally friendly investments as home
improvements are made (which they often are not).
The data necessary to examine these research questions comes from a nationwide
survey, carried out in the three major Swiss languages. The target population comprises
all German-, French- or Italian-speaking residents of Switzerland over 18 years of age.
Respondents will be selected randomly in a two-stage procedure: first at the household
level and then at the individual level within household. The selection and survey
procedures are intended to result in 3'369 respondents; a sample size
intended to allow relatively specific estimates and adequate analysis of the effect of SES
on the hypothesized effects. The data collection will be conducted by telephone (CATI
interviews) and via a mail survey. The resulting data will be analyzed with multivariate
statistical techniques, among others. They will also be made available to interested
researchers in well documented form shortly after fieldwork ends.