Sociological Explanation of Environmental Behavior based on Lifestyle

Tehran, as the most populous city in Iran, is facing many environmental problems. In order to solve these problems, it is necessary to study lifestyle patterns and consumption patterns. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between lifestyles and environmental behaviors. The theoretical framework of the research is Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, Simmel's theory and Veblen's theory of demonstrative consumption. Quantitative research approach is survey research method and questionnaire collection tool. The statistical population is the residents of eight districts of Tehran, the sample size based on Cochran's formula was 384 people. Findings show that there is a strong and positive relationship between lifestyles (reasonable consumption and cultural consumption) and environmental behavior, there is an inverse and strong relationship between material consumption lifestyle and environmental behavior. The average environmental behavior of men and women and marital status show that women have more supportive environmental behavior than men and married people more than single people. Supportive environmental behavior was higher in the 43+ age group than in the 18-42 age group, and there was no significant relationship between environmental behavior and education. The results of regression analysis and path analysis show: reasonable consumption lifestyle with 32%, cultural consumption lifestyle with 29% and material consumption lifestyle with 28% total impact are in the first, second and third ranks, respectively.