Emotional affinity toward nature can motivate pro-environmental behaviors

Environmental education (EE) aims to inspire pro-environmental behaviors and, in doing so, promote a more sustainable future. Research shows that knowledge and rational thought are not the only factors driving behaviors; emotions are also important. Studies show that many emotions—including self-blame, indignation, and anger—influence decision-making around pro-environmental behaviors. This study explored whether emotional affinity toward nature—a concept that encompasses a variety of positive feelings toward nature, including connectedness, oneness, and love—influences pro-environmental behaviors. The researchers investigated the degree to which emotional affinity toward nature influenced pro-environmental behavior compared to two other factors: interest in nature and indignation about insufficient nature protection. Additionally, because evidence suggests that spending time in nature has cognitive and emotional impacts, the researchers investigated how experiences in nature affected affinity toward and interest in nature.

This study took place in Germany. The authors recruited study participants through their networks, and 281 adults (152 men and 127 women, with an average age 33) elected to participate. Of the 281 participants, 81 were actively involved in nature protective organizations, while the remaining 200 lacked this affiliation. The authors distributed questionnaires to participants to collect information about their public and private conservation behaviors. Conservation behaviors were measured by participants' willingness to act and their self-reported actions. The questionnaire also asked participants about the frequency of their current and past experiences in nature and whether their experiences included family and friends. Questions about past experiences focused on those aged 7-12 years old. The questionnaire used multiple scales to test the degree to which interest and indignation influenced pro-environmental behaviors. It also included a scale created by the authors to test how well emotional affinity predicted pro-environmental behaviors.

The authors found that the three factors measured in the study—affinity, interest, and indignation—all predicted nature protective behavior. Results showed that affinity toward nature was the strongest predictor of private, or personal, pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., energy conservation behaviors, bike commuting, etc.), whereas interest in nature was more predictive of public pro-environmental behaviors that occur in groups (e.g., participating in protests or lobby days). Results also showed that affinity, interest, and indignation were more likely to influence willingness to act than to influence self-reported behaviors. The authors also found that nature experiences bolstered affinity and interest levels. Participants who indicated more frequent experiences in nature, particularly with family and friends, reported higher affinity and interest levels. Frequency of current experiences in nature proved to have the strongest impact on affinity and interest. Nature experiences did not significantly influence indignation.

This study had limitations. The participants were recruited through the authors' networks and they chose to participate in the study. As such, they were not representative of the larger population; another study in a different location with more participants may produce different results. Further, the authors drew conclusions based on participants' self-reported information, which can be more biased than observational data. Participants may have responded in ways they believed would be viewed favorably by others (e.g., overreporting pro-environmental behaviors) or may not accurately remember their own behavior. Finally, it investigated participants' experiences, thoughts, and emotions at a cross-section of time. Given the study's cross-sectional design, the authors were unable to measure changes over time. Therefore, they could not make any conclusions about causation but could only determine relationships among different factors. For example, the results showed that nature experiences and affinity for nature were related; however, they did not provide insight into whether feeling affinity toward nature motivated people to spend more time in nature or vice versa.

To promote affinity toward and interest in nature, the authors recommend that practitioners offer a variety of opportunities for people of all ages to experience nature with all five senses. Multisensory experiences offer different ways for people to connect with nature and are therefore potentially more impactful. They further emphasize that experiences in nature with friends and family are highly beneficial. The authors also encourage practitioners to integrate age-appropriate discussions of environmental ethics and values into outdoor experiences. They place special emphasis on the importance of encouraging young people to spend time in nature and to do so with family and friends, particularly family members. Finally, they encourage practitioners to integrate educational components into nature experiences for maximum impact.