Sea of plastic: representations of the sea and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors regarding marine plastic pollution in Peru and Chile

Fernanda Saavedra; Marisol Mego; Sofia Ticona; Martin Thiel; Jostein Baeza; Agustín Espinosa

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1308796

Sea of plastic: representations of the sea and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors regarding marine plastic pollution in Peru and Chile

Front Psychol. 2024 Jan 18:14:1308796. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1308796. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fernanda Saavedra¹, Marisol Mego¹, Sofia Ticona¹, Martin Thiel^{2

3

4}, Jostein Baeza³, Agustín Espinosa¹

Affiliations

¹ Grupo de Psicología Política y Social de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Departamento de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru.
² MarineGEO Program, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, United States.
³ Facultad Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile.
⁴ Center of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Island (ESMOI), Coquimbo, Chile.

Abstract

Marine plastic pollution remains one of the greatest problems worldwide. Hence, this study explores the attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors of Peruvian and Chilean citizens regarding marine pollution, with an emphasis on plastic pollution. For this, forty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with Peruvian (n = 24) and Chilean (n = 20) citizens, of which, through thematic analysis, semantic patterns were identified. Results show that the participants' representation of the sea is positive and related to the connection they report having with this environment. Additionally, it was found that the sea fulfills recreational and economic purposes, reflecting an anthropocentric perspective, since it is associated with leisure and resource extraction, respectively. Both purposes are related to the causes of plastic pollution, although with differentiated effects. Anthropocentrism is also reflected in the direction that environmental concern takes towards the impact of this type of pollution predominately on individuals and society. Regarding pro-environmental behaviors, most of the initiatives proposed by the participants in response to marine plastic pollution correspond to individual actions, which could be due to the fact that they perceive a low commitment level from authorities to address the problem. In particular, the Chilean participants attributed a greater role to their authorities in dealing with plastic pollution, which would indicate a more institutional perspective of the problem. Thus, it is proposed that to address marine plastic pollution it is necessary to articulate individual actions with public policies carried out by social stakeholders such as governments, companies and non-governmental organizations, in order to build a more efficient culture of marine protection.

Keywords: anthropocentrism; marine plastic pollution; pro-environmental attitudes; pro-environmental behaviors; representations of the sea.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding support was received through the project “Reducing the Impacts of Plastic Waste in the Eastern Pacific Ocean” led by the University of Exeter and awarded by the UKRI Collective Fund through the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Global Challenges Research Fund (NE/V005448/1). MT participation was also possible by a Marine Conservation Fellowship from the Pew Charitable Trusts (under grant agreement number 00031733), European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, MINKE project (under grant agreement number 101008724).