New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP)

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.