Engaging with the natural environment : the role of affective connection and identity

By J. Hinds, Paul Sparks. 2008

691 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Research has shown pro-environmental behaviour to be positively associated with the strength of emotional connection towards the natural environment. The present study (N=199) investigated the predictive utility of an extended model of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) [ Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211] for people's intentions to engage with the natural environment. It was hypothesised that both affective connection and identification with the natural environment would contribute significantly to the prediction of people's intentions. A secondary hypothesis was that participants who had grown up in rural areas would report more positive orientations towards engaging with the natural environment than would urban participants. The research found that affective connection was a significant independent predictor of intentions to engage with the natural environment. Environmental identity was only a significant predictor in the absence of affective connection in the regression model. As predicted, rural and urban participants differed significantly along the measured variables.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/af18ce0f35e6c7d0a7ec2d5c8a817928753dbd70

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Citations in the corpus

Zoo Visitors' Affective Responses to Observing Animal Behaviors (2016, background): “, Isen, 2008). Specifically, experimental studies have demonstrated that positive affect (in particular mild positive affect) can have a facilitating effect on various cognitive processes such as focus of attention, cognitive flexibility, and decision making. In addition, positive affect has been fo”
Promoting connectedness with nature through environmental education (2013, background): “Based on this concept, other ideas have been developed which conceive feelings related to humans connection with nature as an affective connection or emotional affinity towards nature (Kals, Schumacher, and Montada 1999 ; Mayer and McPherson Frantz 2004 ; Hinds and Sparks 2008 ).”
The relationship between materialistic values and environmental attitudes and behaviors: A meta-analysis (2013, neutral): “We decided to exclude measures that were concerned with identity or self-image (Ecological Self Scale: Hirsh & Dolderman, 2007; Ecological Identification: Hinds & Sparks, 2008) as these did not explicitly focus on attitudes towards the environment.”
Building a model of commitment to the natural environment to predict ecological behavior and willingness to sacrifice (2011, neutral): “…examined human environmental behaviors, examining predictors such as attitudes (Hines, Hungerford, & Tomera, 1986e1987), values (Schultz & Zelezny, 1999; Stern, 2000), affect (Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Schultz, 2000), and normative influence (Nolan, Schultz, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2008).”
An Exploration of the Relationships between Adults' Childhood and Current Nature Exposure and Their Mental Well-Being (2023, background): “Important for the current work, connectedness to nature has been found to have positive impacts on the individual as it correlates with personal well-being (e.g., Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Mayer & Frantz, 2004; Mayer et al., 2009; Nisbet, Zelenski, & Murphy, 2011).”
Environmental Protection and Nature as Distinct Attitudinal Objects (2013, methodology): “…et al., 2011), the present attitude toward nature measure could be used as the standard to empirically answer the very many interesting questions about the formation and mental representation of a positive attitude toward nature (e.g., Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Schultz, 2002; Schultz et al., 2004).”
A Measure of Nature Connectedness for Children and Adults: Validation, Performance, and Insights (2019, background): “Research into nature connectedness has placed an emphasis on direct experiences with nature that foster an affective relationship [19,34].”
The green care code: How nature connectedness and simple activities help explain pro‐nature conservation behaviours (2020, neutral): “…2014), and of greater levels of both pro-environmental (see meta-analysis by Mackay & Schmitt, 2019; see also Geng, Xu, Ye, Zhou, & Zhou, 2015; Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Kals, Schumaker, & Montada, 1999; Otto & Pensini, 2017) and pro-nature conservation (Hughes et al., 2018; Richardson et al.,…”
Experiencing nature in children's summer camps: Affective, cognitive and behavioural consequences (2013, methodology): “Children from rural areas are likely to have more frequent contact with nature than those in urban ones (Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Müller et al., 2009) and, as stated before, more contact with nature positively influences children’s proenvironmental attitudes (Cheng & Monroe, 2012).”
Evaluating the effects of environmental education programming on connectedness to nature (2011, background): “Hinds and Sparks (2008) focused their study on intentions to engage with the natural world, since nature experiences have ‘significant correlations with pro-environmental behaviors’ (109). They found that ‘the more one has an affective connection with the natural environment, the greater one’s inten”
Effect of frequency and mode of contact with nature on children's self-reported ecological behaviors (2015, background): “Retrospective studies have shown that childhood experiences of nature predict EB later in life (Chawla & Cushing, 2007; Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Thompson et al., 2008; Wells & Lekies, 2006).”
Environmental psychology matters. (2014, background): “However, students in the United Kingdom who had grown up in rural areas report more positive orientations toward the natural environment than do urban-raised students (Hinds & Sparks 2008).”
Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: a review. (2014, background): “Yet many studies have shown that these models could be expanded to include other personal and social factors (e.g., Chen & Tung, 2010; Heath & Gifford, 2002; Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Raymond, Brown, & Robinson, 2011).”