Environmental education is an essential tool for developing pro-environmental values and behaviors. EE practices benefit from a deeper understanding of drivers of pro-environmental tendencies. Research indicates that empathy and compassion drive pro-environmental tendencies, specifically values, intentions, and donations. The authors defined compassion as feelings that arise based on the suffering of others. Compassion can be felt towards other humans and towards other beings, such as animals. In addition, compassion drives moral judgements and actions. When compassionate individuals have the resources to help others, they tend to participate in prosocial actions, or actions that relieve the suffering of others. The authors believed that compassion towards humans can also drive moral judgments about nature. This study investigated whether compassion towards other people was associated with pro-environmental tendencies.
This research reported on two studies. The first study measured how compassion for other humans correlated to pro-environmental tendencies. The study was conducted with three groups, and all three groups completed an adapted version of an existing survey called the emotional empathy scale to measure compassion. Then, each group also completed a survey to measure a different pro-environmental tendency—values were measured in Group 1, intentions were measured in Group 2, and donations were measured in Group 3. Group 1 was composed of 101 undergraduate students from a German university. To measure pro-environmental values, the participants responded to statements about their concern for protecting the environment on a scale of 1 (not true at all) to 7 (completely true). Group 2 was composed of 60 undergraduate students from a German University. To measure pro-environmental intentions, participants completed a survey which asked about their intentions to take environmental actions in the future using a scale of 1 (not true at all) to 7 (completely true). Group 3 was recruited from the general population in the Netherlands. A total of 1,935 participants completed an online survey in which they reported their pro-environmental donations. The researchers used statistics to analyze the data.
The second study used an experiment to determine if compassion for other humans can cause pro-environmental intentions. A total of 94 German university students (average age of 23, 47% female) were asked to look at 2 pictures of suffering humans for 10 seconds each. The participants were randomly assigned to high or low compassion conditioning group. The high compassion group was told to take the perspective of the individual in the picture, whereas the low compassion group was told to remain impartial. The participants' pro-environmental intentions were measured in the same way as in study 1 (responding to questions about future environmental actions on a scale of 1 to 7). The authors used statistics to analyze the data.
Overall, this research found that compassion was linked to pro-environmental tendencies. The results from the first study found that compassion was significantly associated with pro-environmental values, intentions, and donations. The second study found that inducing high levels of compassion for other humans caused participants to intend to behave pro-environmentally. Participants conditioned for high compassion reported higher levels of pro-environmental intention compared to the participants conditioned for low compassion.
This research has several limitations. In both studies, the participant responses did not represent actual or observed pro-environmental tendencies, only the participants' self-perception. The authors also acknowledged the sample of university students may have been more liberal and/or more compassionate than general populations. In both studies, it was also unclear if participants' compassion towards other humans is directly linked to pro-environmental tendencies, or if there is a third factor. For instance, participants' compassion towards humans is linked to wanting humans to have a healthy environment to live in and thrive, which is linked to pro-environmental tendencies. This study took place in Europe, and results may vary in other locations due to differences in culture and context.
The authors recommend using compassion in EE programs in order to promote pro-environmental values and behaviors. The authors suggest that increasing awareness of negative consequences for others, if environmental actions are not taken, as an effective way to promote compassion. Compassion can also be induced by encouraging participants to take various perspectives and actively direct empathetic thoughts towards a subject, which could be other humans, animals, or the natural world more broadly. The findings in this study can be incorporated into theory, program, and resource development for EE, and the work of other pro-environmental organizations.
The Bottom Line
This research used two studies to investigate how compassion relates to pro-environmental tendencies, namely values, intentions, and donations. The first study measured compassion and pro-environmental tendencies across three groups of participants using surveys. In the second study, the authors manipulated participants' compassion to determine if compassion for other humans caused pro-environmental intentions. The studies found that compassion towards other humans is linked with to pro-environmental tendencies, and that compassion towards other humans can increase pro-environmental intentions. Practitioners can incorporate appeals for compassion as a pathway to promote pro-environmental values and behaviors.