Who has a Pro-Ecological Worldview among educated Indian adults with internet access, and what are the influencing factors?

Exploring public perception and attitude about environmental issues is essential to promote ecological sustainability. The ecological worldview, as tapped by New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale, depicts an individual’s sensitivity toward the environment and further informs their consumption behavior. There is a paucity of research exploring the ecological worldview of Indian consumer segments and their socio-demographic characteristics. In this study, an online cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 1858 Indian adults, and ecological worldview was assessed using NEP Scale. A combination approach of clustering was employed to find consumer segments distinguishable in terms of ecological attitude following dimensional analysis of the NEP Scale using principal component analysis. Socio-demographic predictors of ecological worldview were identified using multiple linear regression. Indian adults endorsed a pro-ecological worldview with a mean NEP score of 3.45. NEP Scale tapped three dimensions of ecological worldview among the Indian sub-sample instead of five, which were “Environmental concern,” “Humans over nature,” and “Limits of earth.” “Ecologically conscious,” “Conscious anthropocentric,” and “Ecologically sensitive” were three identified segments endorsing facets of ecological worldview to a varying degree. Education, occupation, religion, caste, number of children or adolescents in a family, family type, house location, and residential zone were significant predictors of pro-ecological worldview among Indian adults. Thus, the worldview of Indian adults was inspired by the New Ecological Paradigm. Environmental sustainability must be emphasized from earlier years of education with women in policymaking. Policy framework to promote environmental awareness and ecological sensitivity must consider the socio-demographic characteristics of various population segments.