Shaping Environmental Attitudes Through Distributive Justice

Evidence from the 2021 European Floods and Implications for Youth

Bibliographic Data

ID19220927
AuthorsHamid Bulut (0000-0002-8317-8757, University of Luxembourg, corresponding author), Robin Samuel (0000-0002-7598-197X, University of Luxembourg, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume39
Issue2
Pages192-215
Publication date2026-06-15
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Justice Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0885-7466 • E-ISSN: 1573-6725
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11211-026-00475-7
OpenAlexW7164750979
LanguageEN
References cited90

In the face of climate change, the principles of distributive justice have become paramount in addressing the implications of resource allocation and the unequal impacts of environmental degradation. Distributive justice theory distinguishes four principles (equality, need, merit, and entitlement), which together provide a conceptual framework for evaluating fairness. Our study explores the relationship between distributive justice and environmental attitudes among young people in the context of climate change. Using a quasi-experimental design leveraging the timing of the 2021 European floods, we examined whether distributive justice attitudes and environmental attitudes differed before and after the flooding. The floods were associated with shifts in environmental attitudes and in need- and entitlement-based distributive justice attitudes. Distributive justice attitudes were also systematically associated with environmental attitudes: need- and equality-based attitudes were positively associated with environmental attitudes, whereas merit- and entitlement-based attitudes were negatively associated with them. Mediation analyses suggested that flood-related changes in environmental attitudes operated partly through changes in distributive justice attitudes. Our results suggest that distributive justice attitudes represent an important factor in understanding environmental attitudes among young people, particularly in the aftermath of climate-related extreme weather events

Distributive justice · Distributive property · Environmental policy · Inequality · Public policy · Social policy · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Risk Perception and Management

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