{"title":"The Green Triad: Environmental Knowledge, Nature Connection, and Prosociality as Drivers of Pro-Environmental Behaviour in Chile - A Review.","authors":"Alexander Neaman","doi":"10.11621/pir.2025.0209","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Addressing global environmental challenges requires an understanding the factors that influence pro-environmental behaviour.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This review summarises Chilean research that explores how environmental knowledge, nature connection, and prosociality influence such behaviour. The review summarises Chilean studies on these driving factors and discuss their implications for environmental education strategies.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>A focussed review was conducted of Chilean studies that employed the General Ecological Behaviour (GEB) scale. This self-reported measure captures a wide range of pro-environmental actions (e.g., recycling, conservation efforts) and environmentally harmful behaviours. The review acknowledges the existence of broader Latin American research on this topic.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The review highlights the importance of specific types of environmental knowledge for pro-environmental behaviour. Knowledge about human impact on ecosystems (human-impact system knowledge) and knowledge of actionable solutions (action knowledge) emerged as key determinants. Interestingly, a knowledge deficit regarding personal effectiveness in environmental protection (effectiveness knowledge) was evident in the Chilean population. In addition, the review emphasises the role of prosocial tendencies, mediated by nature connection, in driving pro-environmental behaviour.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Developing effective environmental education programmes in Chile should prioritise fostering diverse environmental knowledge and strengthening connections with nature. Both environmental knowledge and nature connection can empower individuals and leverage prosocial motivations for positive environmental action. A key limitation of the Chilean studies reviewed are their reliance on cross-sectional data. This type of data allows for the identification of associations but cannot definitively establish causation. To strengthen the causal inferences, future research should employ interventional study designs.</p>","PeriodicalId":44621,"journal":{"name":"Psychology in Russia-State of the Art","volume":"18 2","pages":"141-154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12398186/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychology in Russia-State of the Art","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.11621/pir.2025.0209","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Addressing global environmental challenges requires an understanding the factors that influence pro-environmental behaviour.
Objective: This review summarises Chilean research that explores how environmental knowledge, nature connection, and prosociality influence such behaviour. The review summarises Chilean studies on these driving factors and discuss their implications for environmental education strategies.
Design: A focussed review was conducted of Chilean studies that employed the General Ecological Behaviour (GEB) scale. This self-reported measure captures a wide range of pro-environmental actions (e.g., recycling, conservation efforts) and environmentally harmful behaviours. The review acknowledges the existence of broader Latin American research on this topic.
Results: The review highlights the importance of specific types of environmental knowledge for pro-environmental behaviour. Knowledge about human impact on ecosystems (human-impact system knowledge) and knowledge of actionable solutions (action knowledge) emerged as key determinants. Interestingly, a knowledge deficit regarding personal effectiveness in environmental protection (effectiveness knowledge) was evident in the Chilean population. In addition, the review emphasises the role of prosocial tendencies, mediated by nature connection, in driving pro-environmental behaviour.
Conclusion: Developing effective environmental education programmes in Chile should prioritise fostering diverse environmental knowledge and strengthening connections with nature. Both environmental knowledge and nature connection can empower individuals and leverage prosocial motivations for positive environmental action. A key limitation of the Chilean studies reviewed are their reliance on cross-sectional data. This type of data allows for the identification of associations but cannot definitively establish causation. To strengthen the causal inferences, future research should employ interventional study designs.
期刊介绍:
Established in 2008, the Russian Psychological Society''s Journal «Psychology in Russia: State of the Art» publishes original research on all aspects of general psychology including cognitive, clinical, developmental, social, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, psychology of labor and ergonomics, and methodology of psychological science. Journal''s list of authors comprises prominent scientists, practitioners and experts from leading Russian universities, research institutions, state ministries and private practice. Addressing current challenges of psychology, it also reviews developments in novel areas such as security, sport, and art psychology, as well as psychology of negotiations, cyberspace and virtual reality. The journal builds upon theoretical foundations laid by the works of Vygotsky, Luria and other Russian scientists whose works contributed to shaping the psychological science worldwide, and welcomes international submissions which make major contributions across the range of psychology, especially appreciating the ones conducted in the paradigm of the Russian psychological tradition. It enjoys a wide international readership and features reports of empirical studies, book reviews and theoretical contributions, which aim to further our understanding of psychology.