Personality and pro-environmental behaviour

Personality and individual differences in general have long been an important variable in understanding human behavioural and health outcomes.1 The wide variability of personality traits indicates that all major personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness) are adaptive at all levels of expression,2 but ‘adaptive’ does not mean ‘good’ and while all patterns of personality traits potentially lead to some desirable proximal outcomes to individuals in certain environmental contexts, some patterns lead to more socially appropriate and healthier outcomes than others.3–5 Thus, we can reasonably imagine such a thing as a ‘healthy’ personality,3 at least in terms of the behavioural outcomes it is likely to produce for the individual4 and, perhaps more importantly, for the environment.3 5

The health benefits of a sustainable environment are numerous: from clean…

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