Exposure to nature can promote pro-environmental behavior: Mediating role of temporal discounting

IF 1.8 4区 社会学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL
Pei-Chen Hsia, Yevvon Yi-Chi Chang, Wen-Bin Chiou
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Abstract

One possible explanation for the lack of pro-environmental behavior among the public is that the benefits of combating climate change are long-term and distant. Temporal discounting is a pervasive tendency to prefer small immediate gains to large delayed benefits, which may lead to a lack of motivation to engage in pro-environmental behavior. However, exposure to nature can reduce this tendency and by extension may promote pro-environmental behavior. Two behavioral experiments were conducted to investigate whether exposure to natural (vs. urban) scenes would induce lower discounting and increase the tendency toward pro-environmental behavior. We demonstrated that exposure to natural (vs. urban) scenes was associated with a lower level of discounting and a greater tendency toward pro-environmental behavior, including energy-saving use of air conditioning (Experiment 1), willingness to participate in beach cleaning (Experiment 2), and choosing meals with less environmental impact (Experiment 2). Mediation analysis indicated that the discounting tendency mediated the relationship between exposure to natural scenes and pro-environmental behavior. This study provides the first experimental evidence that temporal discounting accounts for the association between exposure to natural (vs. urban) scenes and the tendency toward pro-environmental behavior. Our findings support the development of a novel strategy for promoting pro-environmental behavior.

接触自然可促进亲环境行为:时间折现的中介作用
公众缺乏环保行为的一个可能解释是,应对气候变化的好处是长期和遥远的。时间折扣是一种普遍的倾向,即更喜欢小的即时收益而不是大的延迟收益,这可能导致缺乏参与亲环境行为的动机。然而,接触大自然可以减少这种倾向,进而可以促进亲环境行为。研究人员进行了两项行为实验,以调查暴露在自然(与城市)场景中是否会导致更低的折扣,并增加亲环境行为的倾向。我们证明,暴露于自然(与城市)场景与较低的折扣水平和更大的亲环境行为倾向相关,包括节能使用空调(实验1),愿意参与海滩清洁(实验2),实验2)。中介分析表明,折扣倾向在自然环境暴露与亲环境行为之间起中介作用。这项研究提供了第一个实验证据,证明时间折扣解释了暴露于自然(与城市)场景与亲环境行为倾向之间的联系。我们的研究结果为促进亲环境行为的新策略的发展提供了支持。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.80
自引率
6.70%
发文量
42
期刊介绍: Recent articles in ASAP have examined social psychological methods in the study of economic and social justice including ageism, heterosexism, racism, sexism, status quo bias and other forms of discrimination, social problems such as climate change, extremism, homelessness, inter-group conflict, natural disasters, poverty, and terrorism, and social ideals such as democracy, empowerment, equality, health, and trust.
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