https://doi.org/10.25678/000F76

Data for: Uncovering the value orientations behind health concerns

Pro-environmental decisions, such as rejecting pesticide use in agriculture, may stem from both environmental and health concerns. Identifying which concerns are more decisive for pro-environmental decisions, and whether this varies between people, depending on their value orientations, could offer valuable insights into how to best promote pro-environmental decisions across different audiences. While biospheric values likely underlie environmental concerns, it is unclear which value orientation underlies health concerns. In a preregistered online experiment (N = 823), we explored whether egoistic or personal safety values—a subtype of personal security values developed for this study—underlie health concerns regarding pesticide use in agriculture. Participants reported on their opposition to the use of a fictitious fungicide in potato cultivation, based on information about its risks to human health (relevant for egoistic and personal safety values) and/or the environment (relevant for biospheric values). Stronger biospheric values were consistently associated with stronger opposition to the fungicide’s use, regardless of the risk information. Egoistic values interacted with risk information, but these interactions contradicted our assumption that egoistic values reflect health concerns. Personal safety values showed no interaction with risk information and were not independently associated to opposition to the fungicide’s use. Our findings suggest that neither egoistic nor personal safety values serve as the basis for health concerns driving pro-environmental decisions. This underscores the need to identify an additional value orientation that reflects health concerns and develop measures to assess it.

Data and Resources

Citation

This Data Package

Contzen, N., Aigner, E., Scheidegger, A., Aicher, L., & Wilk, M. F. (2025). Data for: Uncovering the value orientations behind health concerns (Version 1.0). Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.25678/000F76

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The associated article

Contzen, N., Aigner, E., Scheidegger, A., Aicher, L., & Wilks, M. F. (2025). Uncovering the value orientations behind health concerns driving pro-environmental decisions: The case of pesticide use in agriculture. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 100240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2025.100240

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Metadata

Publication Data Package for:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2025.100240

Open Data

Author	Contzen, Nadja Aigner, Eva Scheidegger, Andreas Aicher, Lothar Wilk, Martin F.
Keywords	Core values,Environmental concern,Human health concern,Online experimental study,plant protection products
Timerange	2021-03 TO 2021-04
Geographic Name(s)	German-speaking Switzerland
Review Level	general
Curator	Contzen, Nadja
Contact	Contzen, Nadja <Nadja.Contzen@eawag.ch>
DOI	10.25678/000F76