To focus on voters' priorities, Bill Clinton's campaign famously used the slogan, “It's the economy stupid.” With growing environmental crises, is this still true? We explored this issue for the marine sector, using representatively-weighted survey data from 14 European countries (N = 11,130). Citizens were asked about their own and policy makers' (perceived) preferences for marine-related economic, environmental, and human health policy goals. Results found the public consistently prioritised environmental protection and, to a lesser extent, health over economic growth. However, the public believed that policy makers cared less about the environment and health, but more about the economy than they did themselves. These patterns were consistent across all countries, all points of the political spectrum, and among coastal and inland residents. Marine policy makers who care about public opinion, may want to start considering that, at least for the European public, it is increasingly about “the environment, stupid!”.

中文翻译：

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对于各种政治派别的欧洲公民来说，环境保护比经济增长更重要：一项针对 14 个国家的海洋研究


为了关注选民的优先事项，比尔·克林顿的竞选活动使用了一句著名的口号：“经济是愚蠢的。”随着环境危机日益严重，这仍然是真的吗？我们利用 14 个欧洲国家 (N = 11,130) 的代表性加权调查数据探讨了海洋部门的这个问题。公民被问及他们自己和政策制定者对与海洋相关的经济、环境和人类健康政策目标的（感知）偏好。结果发现，公众始终将环境保护以及健康（较小程度上）置于经济增长之上。然而，公众认为政策制定者比他们自己更关心经济而不是环境和健康。这些模式在所有国家、所有政治领域以及沿海和内陆居民中都是一致的。关心公众舆论的海洋政策制定者可能要开始考虑，至少对于欧洲公众来说，它越来越关注“环境，愚蠢的！”。