Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 00, No. 00, 2012, pp. 1--6 Economic Development and Environmental Intentions: A Comment on Liu and Sibley (2011) Katherine D. Arbuthnott ∗ Campion College, University of Regina Daniel Devoe Luther College, University of Regina Tricia Lawrie University of Regina In a sample of university students from 34 countries, Liu and Sibley (2011) ob- served that the association between concern about climate change and willingness to pay for protection of the natural environment was moderated by countries’ hu- man development index (HDI). Two concerns with this research are outlined, the use of a single, biased question to measure environmental action intentions and the authors’ framing of the results using a disconfirmed version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. When considered outside the framework of Maslow’s hi- erarchy, HDI seems to influence concern about climate change but not willingness to pay for environmental protection. Liu and Sibley (2011) analyzed the association between environmental con- cern and behavioral intentions as a function of countries’ Human Development Index (HDI) and concluded that individuals’ concern–intention association is mod- erated by country-level HDI. We applaud the inclusion of HDI in crosscountry analyses and welcome acknowledgement that contextual factors can account for variance in citizens’ behavioral intentions. However, we have two chief criticisms of this analysis, one methodological and one theoretical. ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Katherine D. Arbuth- nott, Campion College, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada, S4S 0A2 [e-mail: kather- ine.arbuthnott@uregina.ca]. 1 DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2012.01289.x C  2012 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues