Implicit connections with nature

By P. W. Schultz, C. Shriver, Jennifer J. Tabanico, Azar M. Khazian. 2004

1,057 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Previous research has suggested that attitudes about environmental issues are rooted in the degree to which people believe that they are part of the natural environment. Researchers have distinguished between egoistic concerns, which focus on self, and biospheric concerns, which focus on all living things. In the current paper, we argue that the type of concerns a person develops about environmental issues is associated with the extent to which the individual believes that s/he is part of nature. We argue that this connection is implicit, and exists outside of conscious awareness. Two studies are reported on the relationship between implicit connections with nature and explicit environmental concerns, and on the cognitive strategies associated with egoistic and biospheric attitudes. Study 1 reports the results from a modified Implicit Association Test (IAT) designed to measure the degree to which people associate themselves with nature. Results showed a moderate positive relationship between biospheric concerns and implicit connections with nature, and a negative relationship between implicit connections with nature and egoistic concerns. Study 2 replicated this basic effect, and also examined the test–retest (immediate, 1 week, and 4 weeks) reliability of the explicit and implicit measures. Results are interpreted within a broad model of environmental inclusion.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b0d43cbf940b2ad3767423efc1da4c278d95b5f3

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Citations in the corpus

Conservation Volunteers' Connection to Nature (2009, neutral): “…that could help to understand the relationship between self and nature, including the Environmental Identity Scale ( Clayton, 2003 ); Connectedness to Nature Scale ( Mayer & Frantz, 2004 ); and Implicit Association Test ( Schultz, Shriver, Tabanico, & Khazian, 2004 ; Schultz & Tabanico, 2007 ).”
Teachers' conceptions of nature and environment in 16 countries (2009, neutral): “Environmental attitudes relate to environmental concerns and may be defined as ‘‘ the collection of beliefs, affect, and behavioural intentions a person holds regarding environmentally related activities or issues ’’ (Schultz et al. 2004).”
The Effect of Empathy in Proenvironmental Attitudes and Behaviors (2007, background): “In another article, Schultz et al. (2004) point out that the types of environmental attitude developed are associated with the extent to which a person believes he or she is part of the natural environment.”
The Green Purchase Behavior of Hong Kong Young Consumers: The Role of Peer Influence, Local Environmental Involvement, and Concrete Environmental Knowledge (2010, background): “Environmental Involvement Environmental involvement refers to the affect or the emotion associated with beliefs about environmental protection (Schultz et al. 2004).”
Fostering customers' pro-environmental behavior at a museum (2017, background): “Attachment to nature often broadens individuals’ identify or self-definition (Mayer & Frantz, 2004; Schultz et al., 2004).”
Getting to know nature: evaluating the effects of the Get to Know Program on children’s connectedness with nature (2017, methodology): “Thus, to circumvent this social desirability bias, some researchers have attempted to measure connectedness with nature using implicit measures (Devine 2001; Nosek, Greenwald, and Banaji 2005), including the Implicit Association Test for Nature (IAT Nature: Schultz et al. 2004; Schultz and Tabanico ”
The measurement of place attachment: Personal, community, and environmental connections (2010, background): “Schultz and colleagues suggest that individuals hold implicit cognitive associations between themselves and the natural environment which influence their environmental concerns (Schultz et al., 2004; Schultz & Tabanico, 2007).”
Educational impact on the relationship of environmental knowledge and attitudes (2018, methodology): “the environment’; Utilisation is a more ‘anthropocentric dimension that reflects the utilization of natural resources’ (Wiseman and Bogner 2003, 5). The 2-MEV model with its sound psychometric properties has been widely and independently used by various research groups in different settings and in m”