Gender and cross-country differences in the determinants of sustainable diet intentions: a multigroup analysis of the UK, China, Sweden, and Brazil.

Introduction: Gender differences have been identified in both the engagement in and the determinants of sustainable diet behaviours. However, as engagement in pro-environmental behaviours varies across countries, the consistency of gender differences could follow similar patterns. Understanding the factors underlying gender and country differences in diet intentions is important for determining how to promote sustainable diets in different populations. Methods: Using survey data from the UK, China, Sweden and Brazil (N=4,569), this paper examines the influence of subjective norms, diet-related identity, perceived status of meat consumption, environmental identity and environmental concern on sustainable diet intentions. Multigroup analysis was used to explore gender and country differences in the influence of these variables, and whether gender differences were consistent across the four countries. Results: The findings show that there are gender differences in the influence of diet-related identity and perceived status of meat consumption, as well as cross-country differences in all factors except subjective norms. Holding a strong diet-related meat identity negatively affected sustainable diet intentions in all groups. Crucially, however, gender differences are not consistent across countries. Discussion: These results suggest that individuals' intentions to engage in sustainable diet behaviours are influenced by nationally unique gender associations.

Risk tolerance as a complementary concept to risk perception of natural hazards: A conceptual review and application.

There is a longstanding assumption that if people perceive a risk as high, they will act to reduce it. In fact, research has shown a lack of consistently strong causal relations between risk perception (RP) and mitigative behavior-the so-called "risk perception paradox." Despite a recent increase in research on RP, individuals' risk tolerance (RT; or demand for risk reduction) only rarely appears as a consideration for explaining behavioral response to natural hazards. To address this research gap, we first systematically review relevant literature and find that RT has been directly assessed or operationalized using perceived thresholds related to costs and benefits of risk reduction measures, risk consequences, hazard characteristics, behavioral responses, or affective reactions. It is either considered a component or a result of RP. We then use survey data of individuals' RP, RT, and behavioral intention to assess relations among these variables. Comparing across three European study sites, "behavioral intention" is assessed as the public's willingness to actively support the implementation of nature-based solutions to reduce disaster risk. A series of tests using regression models shows RT significantly explains variance in behavioral intention and significantly contributes additional explanatory power beyond RP in all three sites. In two sites, RT is also a significant partial mediator of the relation between RP and behavior. Taken together, our findings demand further conceptual and empirical research on individuals' RT and its systematic consideration as a determinant for (in)action in response to natural hazards.

Experience of extreme weather affects climate change mitigation and adaptation responses.

The winter of 2013/2014 saw a series of severe storms hit the UK, leading to widespread flooding, a major emergency response and extensive media exposure. Previous research indicates that experiencing extreme weather events has the potential to heighten engagement with climate change, however the process by which this occurs remains largely unknown, and establishing a clear causal relationship from experience to perceptions is methodologically challenging. The UK winter flooding offered a natural experiment to examine this question in detail. We compare individuals personally affected by flooding (n = 162) to a nationally representative sample (n = 975). We show that direct experience of flooding leads to an overall increased salience of climate change, pronounced emotional responses and greater perceived personal vulnerability and risk perceptions. We also present the first evidence that direct flooding experience can give rise to behavioural intentions beyond individual sustainability actions, including support for mitigation policies, and personal climate adaptation in matters unrelated to the direct experience.

Creating a national citizen engagement process for energy policy.

This paper examines some of the science communication challenges involved when designing and conducting public deliberation processes on issues of national importance. We take as our illustrative case study a recent research project investigating public values and attitudes toward future energy system change for the United Kingdom. National-level issues such as this are often particularly difficult to engage the public with because of their inherent complexity, derived from multiple interconnected elements and policy frames, extended scales of analysis, and different manifestations of uncertainty. With reference to the energy system project, we discuss ways of meeting a series of science communication challenges arising when engaging the public with national topics, including the need to articulate systems thinking and problem scale, to provide balanced information and policy framings in ways that open up spaces for reflection and deliberation, and the need for varied methods of facilitation and data synthesis that permit access to participants' broader values. Although resource intensive, national-level deliberation is possible and can produce useful insights both for participants and for science policy.