Compare methods

	New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP)	Value-Belief-Norm Model (VBN)
Field	Environmental Sociology	Environmental Sociology
Family	Latent structure	Regression model
Year of origin	2000	1999
Originator	Riley E. Dunlap & Kent D. Van Liere; revised by Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig & Jones	Paul C. Stern, Thomas Dietz, Troy Abel, Gregory Guagnano & Linda Kalof
Type	Psychometric scale of ecological worldview	Causal-chain model of pro-environmental behavior
Seminal source	Dunlap, R. E., Van Liere, K. D., Mertig, A. G., & Jones, R. E. (2000). New Trends in Measuring Environmental Attitudes: Measuring Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm: A Revised NEP Scale. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 425-442.	Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T., Guagnano, G. A., & Kalof, L. (1999). A Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Support for Social Movements: The Case of Environmentalism. Human Ecology Review, 6(2), 81-97.
Aliases	NEP Scale, Revised NEP Scale, New Environmental Paradigm Scale, Ecological Worldview Scale	VBN Theory, Value-Belief-Norm Theory, Stern VBN Model, Values-Beliefs-Norms Causal Chain
Related	3	3
Summary	The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale is the most widely used survey instrument for measuring an individual's general ecological worldview — the degree to which they see humanity as part of, and constrained by, a fragile and finite natural environment. Riley Dunlap and Kent Van Liere introduced the original New Environmental Paradigm in 1978 to capture the emerging post-materialist environmental consciousness, and Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, and Jones published the revised 15-item NEP scale in 2000, broadening its content and balancing pro- and anti-ecological items. Respondents rate agreement with statements about the balance of nature, limits to growth, anti-anthropocentrism, the fragility of nature's balance, and the possibility of an ecological crisis. Summing the balanced items yields a score of how strongly a person endorses an ecological versus a dominant social paradigm. The scale functions as a foundational worldview measure that predicts more specific environmental beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, and it anchors much of quantitative environmental sociology.	The value-belief-norm (VBN) model explains pro-environmental behavior as the end of a causal chain that runs from basic human values, through environmental beliefs, to a felt moral obligation that activates action. Paul Stern, Thomas Dietz, and colleagues introduced it in 1999 to account for support for the environmental movement, and Stern elaborated it in 2000 as a general theory of environmentally significant behavior. The chain links Schwartz value orientations (especially biospheric and altruistic values) to an ecological worldview measured by the New Ecological Paradigm, then to awareness of adverse consequences and ascription of responsibility, which in turn activate personal norms — the internalized sense of obligation to act. Those personal norms predict several distinct classes of behavior: environmental activism, non-activist public support, private-sphere behaviors, and behavior in organizations. The model fuses Schwartz's value theory with Schwartz's norm-activation theory and the NEP, and it is typically tested with path analysis or structural equation modeling. VBN remains the leading sociological account of why people act for the environment.