The measurement of consumer environmental knowledge: Revisions and extensions

Researchers have spent nearly three decades investigating factors related to consumer environmental behaviors. Consumer knowledge has been considered an integral part of the equation. Unfortunately, prior research has been hampered by (1) a lack of content validity for some measures of objective knowledge and (2) a lack of consideration for measures of self-assessed knowledge. Since development of the consumer environmental behavior equation is contingent on appropriate measurement, this study revises and extends the measurement of consumer environmental knowledge The revised and extended measures are then tested for their predictive validity using a sample of 175 primary household shoppers. The results indicate that both objective and subjective knowledge have significant empirical relationships with consumer environmental behavior, with objective knowledge being the stronger predictor. Consistent with prior research in knowledge theory, objective and self-assessed knowledge are correlated.