Cooperation is in our nature: Nature exposure may promote cooperative and environmentally sustainable behavior

By John M. Zelenski, R. Dopko, C. Capaldi. 2015

394 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Theory and correlational research suggest that connecting with nature may facilitate prosocial and environmentally sustainable behaviors. In three studies we test causal direction with experimental manipulations of nature exposure and laboratory analogs of cooperative and sustainable behavior. Participants who watched a nature video harvested more cooperatively and sustainably in a fishing-themed commons dilemma, compared to participants who watched an architectural video (Study 1 and 2) or geometric shapes with an audio podcast about writing (Study 2). The effects were not due to mood, and this was corroborated in Study 3 where pleasantness and nature content were manipulated independently in a 2 × 2 design. Participants exposed to nature videos responded more cooperatively on a measure of social value orientation and indicated greater willingness to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviors. Collectively, results suggest that exposure to nature may increase cooperation, and, when considering environmental problems as social dilemmas, sustainable intentions and behavior.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d953578831f0d4ea27f49b692e3d198ff152763e

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Citations in the corpus

The psychological and social benefits of a nature experience for children: A preliminary investigation (2019, background): “Moreover, the social benefits of nature contact for children observed in the current study extends the research that has been conducted on nature exposure and pro-sociality with adults (e.g., Raihani & Bshary, 2012; Weinstein et al., 2009; Zelenski et al., 2015).”
Mindfulness in Nature Enhances Connectedness and Mood (2019, neutral): “…process, empirical, theoretical, and anecdotal evidence indicates that nature, whether viewed remotely (photograph, video) or experienced directly, can induce better mood and encourage sustainable behaviors (Maller, Townsend, Pryor, Brown, & St Leger, 2005; Zelenski, Dopko, & Capaldi, 2015).”
From Awe to Ecological Behavior: The Mediating Role of Connectedness to Nature (2018, background): “Specifically, emotions (such as fear, pride) and exposure to nature are considered to affect environmentally related behavior [40,41].”
Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours (2020, background): “Zelenski et al., 2015).”
Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda (2017, background): “…studies of residential greenness (Dadvand et al. 2016; Kweon et al. 1998; Sullivan et al. 2004) and of nearby parks (Fan et al. 2011) and experimental studies of brief nature exposures (Piff et al. 2015; Zelenski et al. 2015) have found an association between nature contact and prosocial outcomes.”
Into the Wild: The Effects of 360° Immersive Nature Videos on Feelings of Commitment to the Environment (2019, background): “…who specialize in environmental sustainability, and a sizeable body of literature exists on environmental connectedness and pro-environmental attitudes and behavior (e.g. Ahn et al., 2016; Davis et al., 2009; Schultz, 2000; Soliman et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2019; Zelenski et al., 2015).”