The centrality of culture for achieving environmental sustainability has long been underscored by philosophers, psychologists, and social scientists concerned about the environment. However, to date few studies have detected an empirical relationship between cultural dimensions and actual environmental impacts on Earth (e.g., the Ecological Footprint, EF). This study examined the hypothesis that an individualistic society, herein defined as one whose members predominantly believe in forms of independent self-construal, would exhibit a higher environmental impact compared to a less individualistic society, herein defined as one where the prevailing belief is in interdependent selfhood. This study tested three sub-hypotheses. First, due to the dominance of the independent self, people in an individualistic society tend to be less inclined to believe that human activities cause environmental problems (i.e., lower levels of anthropogenic perception). Second, these low levels of anthropogenic perception prevent members of individualistic societies from consciously organizing pro-environmental behavior, resulting in a higher environmental impact. Third, even among countries with similar levels of anthropogenic perception, those in individualistic societies would exhibit higher environmental impacts due to less self-control when facing trade-offs between individual and social benefits. To examine these hypotheses, the study used three indices comprising country-level data including Hofstede’s ‘individualism-collectivism’ scale, EF, and anthropogenic perception of climate change. Results confirm higher EF for more individualistic countries, supporting the main hypothesis and confirming positive results for all subhypotheses. The findings suggest that although the independent self has traditionally been a major cornerstone of western civilization and been valorized in other places worldwide during the modern era, rewriting this culturally-derived concept of self might now be necessary to move towards greater environmental sustainability

长期以来，关注环境的哲学家，心理学家和社会科学家都强调文化在实现环境可持续性方面的中心地位。但是，迄今为止，很少有研究发现文化层面和实际环境对地球的影响（例如，生态足迹，EF）之间存在经验关系。这项研究检验了一种假设，即个体主义社会，在本文中定义为其成员主要相信独立的自我建构形式的社会，相比于个体主义程度较低的社会（在本文中，盛行的信仰是相互依存的社会），将表现出更高的环境影响。个性。这项研究检验了三个亚假设。首先，由于独立自我的优势，个人主义社会的人们不太倾向于相信人类活动会导致环境问题（即较低的人为感知水平）。其次，这些低水平的人为感阻止个人主义社会的成员自觉组织环保行为，从而对环境产生更大的影响。第三，即使在具有相似的人为感知水平的国家中，由于面对个体利益与社会利益之间的权衡时，自我控制能力较弱，在个人主义社会中的国家也会表现出较高的环境影响。为了检验这些假设，该研究使用了包括国家级数据在内的三个指数，包括霍夫斯泰德的“个人主义-集体主义”量表，EF和对气候变化的人为感知。结果证实了针对更多个人主义国家的EF较高，支持了主要假设并证实了所有亚假设的积极结果。研究结果表明，尽管独立的自我传统上一直是西方文明的主要基石，并且在现代时代在世界范围内受到了重视，但现在改写这种源自文化的自我概念对于实现更大的环境可持续性可能是必要的。