Elisabetta Mannoni, Political Science Department, LUISS, Rome

“Pro-environmental voting: what it is, how to measure it, and its determinants among contemporary European voters”

Elisabetta’s paper was highly commended by the Award Committee for reporting on an innovative piece of research that pushes forward conceptual understanding of pro-environmental voting in political psychology through an impressive analysis of large-scale multi-national data. The paper examined pro-environment behaviour through voting- specifically whether individuals vote for a party or candidate who emphasises environmental protection. It drew on the Chapel Hill Expert survey to categorise political parties in terms of their green credentials and then, on data from 26 European countries as part of the European Social Survey to assess the predictors of pro-environmental voting. Findings demonstrated, most notably, that pro-environmental voting was driven by moral obligation- i.e., people who felt responsible for environmental issues tended to vote for parties who emphasise environmental protection. Collective response efficacy, however, did not predict voting behaviour. Some demographic variations were also found, for example, younger voters tended to vote more in favour of environmental parties than older voters. Taken together, the paper demonstrates a novel conceptualisation and measurement of pro-environmental voting that makes an important contribution to the field. The Award Committee recognised the excellence of this research and commended Elisabetta for producing such a strong piece of research at an early career stage.