Local mobility culture is introduced as a theoretical concept that is useful for transformative research. This article conceptualizes local mobility culture as injunctive normative beliefs that comprise the priorities of a local transport system. The concept suggests that these beliefs are acquired through communication within social networks. The presented measure for local mobility culture proposes

In three studies, we investigated the consequences of self-nature representations for pro-environmental action, focusing on the role of viewing nature as relatively larger than the self (i.e., nature-self size; NSS). Drawing on theories from the self, prosocial behavior, and emotions literatures, we anticipated that NSS would make unique contributions above and beyond inclusion of nature in self (INS)

Food loss and food waste extensively contribute to environmental degradation. Crucially, children waste large quantities of food and more research is required to better understand this problem and consequently to reduce food waste in the youngest generation. Here, we examined affective and behavioral components of attitudes towards food-wasting in a group of 670 children and 123 adults, aged 3–28.

The impact of anthropogenic climate change is an ever-pressing challenge facing the global community. Making changes to minimize the negative effects of climate change is critical. Visual images of climate change are emotionally salient and have been found to capture attention. However, the degree to which emotional valence (i.e., positive or negative) and aspect of climate change (i.e., potential

People often misperceive other people's beliefs about global warming—for instance, underestimating the percentage of people who think global warming is happening. In the U.S., perceptions of others vary across political lines and interact with the extent to which partisans align or deviate from the views of their political ingroup. With an online sample of U.S. adults (N = 1214), we conduct a partial

Pro-environmental appeals that strive to protect a natural area often invoke psychological ownership, or a personal, emotional connection to the place. However, in Western cultures, legal ownership is often suggested as a way to preserve natural resources and avoid the “commons problem.” Based on research on human prosocial behavior, we hypothesized that psychological ownership would be a more effective

Images are commonly used in environmental advocacy campaigns that are designed to promote collective action. However, the effects of different types of images have rarely been examined. In three experiments (combined N = 1426), we tested the impact of commonly used campaign images (meeting, protest, or no image) on willingness to engage in collective action against coal mining. Further, we examined

Although people seem to be concerned about climate change, few are pro-actively engaged in attempting to mitigate it. This discrepancy between environmental view and action has been recognized as a great challenge. This empirical study examined that disparity by investigating people's mindsets about the world. Such mindsets concern the degree to which people perceive their world as a changeable entity

Despite the fact that there is a 97% consensus among climate scientists that humans are causing global warming, the spread of misinformation continues to undermine public support for climate action. Previous studies have found that resistance to misinformation can be induced by cognitively inoculating individuals against doubt-sowing about climate change. However, the long-term effectiveness of this

The psychological determinants of place attachment have thus far been explored only to a limited extent. We propose that the bonds humans develop with other humans (attachment styles) are consequential to understand the bonds individuals develop with places and spaces (place attachment). We examined this hypothesis in four studies. Study 1 (N = 101) shows that attachment style is associated with the

Wildfire events have been impacting many parts of the United States. Of particular importance are the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas, where residential development exposes residents to increased risk from the threat of wildfire. However, evidence shows that WUI homeowners do not adequately mitigate risk through participation in programs such as Firewise USA®. In this investigation, we examined

The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the previously underexplored ecological dimension of the overview effect phenomenon – the cognitive shift in awareness experienced by astronauts as a result of seeing Earth from outer space – and to identify and describe its defining features. Based on 14 semi-structured interviews with astronauts, this study applied interpretive phenomenological

Technological advancements spawn products that tend to be useful when placed in the appropriate hands. Here we investigated whether potential benefits of owning a feedback device were driven by individual differences in environmental values (i.e. biospherism), or whether the device alone is sufficient to reduce energy over time. We examined a total of 276 households, 138 equipped with a feedback device

A strong consensus exists amongst climate scientists that the Earth is warming, and that this warming is due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Members of the public are nevertheless frequently exposed to misinformation about climate change (and the degree of scientific consensus on climate change). One strategy to combat such misinformation is attitudinal “inoculation”—exposing individuals

Multiple previous studies have reported that viewing natural scenery supports recovery from psychological stress. Viewing flowers is thus predicted to provide a recovery effect similar to that of viewing natural scenery. It remains unclear, however, how effectively viewing flowers promotes recovery and how the practice affects the brain. Using psychological, physiological, and neuroscientific techniques

This study conducted an experiment in the time donation context to test whether place attachment moderates the impact of compassion fade on intention to donate time for helping other people in need. In the experiment, a two-way ANCOVA considering altruistic values as a covariate revealed that the negative impact of the number of people in need (i.e., compassion fade) on time donation was significantly

Social desirability responding (SDR) is the tendency of respondents to answer survey questions in a manner that will be viewed favourably by others. Scholars in environmental psychology have argued SDR influences individuals’ answers to surveys asking their pro-environmental intentions, attitude and behaviour. Yet empirical evidence indicates the correlations between SDR and environmentalism questions

There has been increasing recognition of the importance of children's outdoor play and independent mobility for thriving children, neighbourhoods, cities and society, which has led to calls to reverse children's retreat from the street commonplace in many Western nations. We privilege the voices of children aged 10–13 living in three diverse neighbourhoods in an urban centre in Canada to examine the

Do consumers become stingy tippers in inclement weather? Prior literature suggests that such weather induces negative moods, which in turn leads to stingy tipping. In this paper, on the basis of New York City taxi tipping data merged with corresponding real-time weather data, we provide different perspectives on weather-induced mood effects that take into account ambient environments provided by indoor

Experimental evidence suggests that our internal representation of surrounding space consists of a stack of horizontal planes. This outcome could reflect a fundamental property of human spatial cognition, or it could just reflect the asymmetrical permeability of buildings in which participants were tested, i.e., they had ample opportunity for looking and walking within a given level, but much less

While the virus SARS-CoV-2 spreads all over the world, most countries have taken severe measures to protect their citizens and slow down the further spread of the disease COVID-19. These measures affect individuals, communities, cities, countries, and the entire planet. In this paper, we propose that the tremendous consequences of the corona crisis invite environmental psychology to focus more strongly

Protecting the environment is a social dilemma: environmental protection benefits everyone but is individually costly. We propose that protecting the environment is similar to other types of cooperation, in that environmentalism functions as a signal of one's willingness to cooperate with others. We test several novel predictions from this hypothesis. We used a mathematical model to show that environmentalism

Self-regulation in early childhood is linked with later academic success and general well-being. Therefore, there is great interest in supporting its development. Exposure to nature has been linked with many positive outcomes, including enhanced attentional functioning, which may be an underlying resource in self-regulation. Employing a quasi-experimental design, we examined the relationship between

Almost all the studies about place attachment in environmental risk contexts only consider the role of place attachment to home or local area. However, especially when it comes to risks requiring evacuation from home and local area, it is likely that place attachment to evacuation sites, if any, becomes relevant too. The present studies intend to understand how place attachment to evacuation sites

Geographical personality differences robustly predict diverse consequential outcomes. However, comparatively little is known about the factors that create such differences, in particular the role of the built environment. To bridge the gap, the present study used a socioecological approach to examine the relationship between walkability and personality. Walkability reflects the degree to which urban

Environmental degradation and biodiversity loss are worldwide problems caused by human activities, which can often be classified as a resource dilemma. Across two studies, and using self-determination theory as a framework, we examine the relationships between motivation, goals, sanctioning systems and sustainable behaviour in a resource dilemma. The resource dilemma used was a 2-person partnered design

Psychological research suggests a sense of purpose in life is a coveted asset, with well-established linkages to well-being and healthy functioning. But how do individuals preserve this sense when previously reliable settings - and the opportunities they afford - are profoundly disrupted? The current moment provides a formidable test of this question, as widespread transmission of Covid-19 and intense

There is increasing attention to the negative emotional responses associated with awareness of climate change. We present three studies developing a scale of climate change anxiety. In Study 1, the scale was developed and validated in an MTurk sample of 197. Exploratory factor analysis of our item pool revealed a four-factor structure, with cognitive-emotional impairment, functional impairment, behavioral

In a time of rapid climate change, understanding what may encourage sustainable consumer behaviour is a vital but difficult challenge. Using an attitude network approach, we investigated which associations people have towards conventional and bio-based plastic in order to develop an empirically-based approach to initiate attitude- and behaviour change. With a qualitative study (N = 97), we distilled

Children's everyday experiences with physical activity in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions are important from a health promotion standpoint. Experiencing well-being in physically active play is important, and the affordances of the environment may support such behaviour. The aim of this study is to develop knowledge about how the affordances of the ECEC outdoor environment may

Rural communities often display strong emotions in response to closures of facilities and services. Research into explaining community responses hardly pays attention to the socio-psychological process of ‘loss’ of such local facilities, which occurs when place bonds are disrupted. This paper explores how a rural community makes sense of place-change by examining how residents interpret, evaluate and

Sophisticated electric lighting solutions like tuneable white-light LED-systems, varying in light amount and/or colour temperature, can help to supplement or mimic daylight. Today's office environments are increasingly being equipped with dynamic lighting solutions even though it is yet unknown what a dynamic pattern looks like to optimally support human performance and well-being. In a pilot study

As cancer remains the leading disease-related cause of death in adolescence, designers must consider the influence of health facility design on social support and quality of life, while considering the changing psychosocial needs of adolescents and young adults (AYAs). Both the stress of treatment and the environment in which treatment occurs can influence AYAs during a time of significant social,

Emerging adulthood is considered an important period in identity formation (Arnett, 2000). In this study, we consider how political ideological development during emerging adulthood may influence environmental beliefs, identity and actions in adulthood. To explore these relationships, we used longitudinal data initially collected in 1999 from over 300 Canadian adolescents (age 19) who were monitored

The 1.5° target outlined in the Paris agreement requires immediate and fundamental climate action; the lack of climate knowledge, prevalent misconceptions and purported knowledge may be major barriers. Therefore, this study was carried out to analyze signs of judgmental overconfidence in lay climate knowledge using a quota sample of 499 Austrians. Results indicate that several misconceptions exist

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to humanity and requires immediate action. Schuldt, Konrath, and Schwarz (2011) suggested that beliefs in environmental phenomena can be influenced by the terminology used to describe it: changing question wording from global warming to climate change resulted in a 6.3 percentage point increase in belief in environmental phenomena. This association was

Clothing production has high impacts on the environment, with a reduction in the consumption of clothes providing a contribution towards urgently needed sustainable production and consumption. The present study employs the comprehensive action determination model (CADM) to identify psychological determinants associated with reduced clothing consumption across five different countries. In two studies

Research has suggested that values favoring the interest of the collective over that of the individual promote pro-environmental behaviors. However, it is also well-documented that people do not always act according to their values; the strength of the association between values and behaviors depends on sociocultural contexts. The present investigation examines under what sociocultural contexts the

The present research investigated whether age-related differences in connectedness with nature in adolescence are associated with pro-environmental behavior across two cultures, Canada (N = 325) and China (N = 363). While older adolescents demonstrated lower connectedness with nature in both countries, pro-environmental behavior was inversely associated with age only in Canada but not in China. To

This paper focuses on intergenerational transmission of environmental behavior, i.e., the processes by which environmental behavior is negotiated and shaped within the family. We offer an analysis of two correlates of child environmental behavior: parental environmental behaviors (as intergenerational transmission) and socialization domains (parent-child interactions). Our interest lies in exploring

When explaining engagement in environmental activism, previous psychological studies have mostly focused on motivational factors. In this investigation, considering that environmental activism is political in essence, I argue that the effect of motivations is moderated by the political context people face. Drawing upon political science theories, I hypothesize that psychological motivations (environmental

Successful climate change mitigation and adaptation depend on the public's trust in experts. Gaining a deeper understanding of how trust in certain actors influences individuals' mitigation and adaptation behaviours is, therefore, key. We present results of a meta-analysis that examines the role of trust in institutions, scientists, industry, environmental groups and people in general, in relation

Behavioral spillover is the phenomenon when a behavior change is accompanied by subsequent changes in other behaviors related to the same goal (e.g., environmental protection). We propose to understand behavioral spillover as the result of attitude change. According to the Campbell Paradigm (see Kaiser, Byrka, & Hartig, 2010), pro-environmental behaviors are an expression of a person's environmental

Ecologically-friendly lifestyles such as Minimalism—living with less—are gaining attention in popular media outlets. However, it is unclear whether ecological concern is driving the popularity of these lifestyles, and how social marketing campaigns could leverage this consumer shift. This research examines whether living with less is equally encouraged by biospheric and egoistic appeals, e.g., reducing

Contact with, and psychological connectedness to the natural world are both associated with various health and sustainability-related outcomes. To date, though, the evidence base has been fragmented. Using a representative sample of the adult population of England (N = 4,960), we investigated the relationships between three types of nature contact, psychological connectedness, health, subjective wellbeing

The dark figures of crime are occurrences that, by some criteria, are called crime yet that are not registered in the official statistics. According to several studies, only a few rapes are reported to the authorities. The current study, using crime data from Campinas, Brazil, sought to examine the spatial dark figures of rapes through the comparison between the spatial patterns of incidents from an

Divisions between political Liberals and Conservatives on environmental issues seem to be widening, with Liberals generally more pro-environmental than Conservatives. We propose that common framing of environmental messages tends to perpetuate these gaps. We designed two experiments to examine this assumption and explore the prospects of narrowing these divisions using communication based on moral

With the development of mobile robots, research on interpersonal distances grew by a new body of research introducing new opportunities to environmental psychology. In this review, an overview of the literature on interpersonal distances focusing on human-robot interaction is given. Findings on the most prominent factors are summarized and discussed with respect to findings from distancing in human-human

This study compares the predictive power of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation behaviors in agricultural rice production. Data were collected from 1538 rice farmers in the province of Hubei, China. We empirically examine the determinants of rice growers' intentions towards mitigation and adaption and

Evidence has revealed that exposure to a restorative environment can have health and cognitive benefits, but the mechanism remains unclear. This study was designed to explore the neural mechanism of environmental restorative experiences. We conducted an experiment by randomly exposing thirty-two participants to either 20 min of a restorative (wooded garden) or a nonrestorative (traffic island) environment

Turn-by-turn instructions of navigation systems do not fully correspond to the way in which people typically communicate spatial information to each other. Previous research demonstrated that the acquisition of survey knowledge from such instructions is challenging. In the present study we investigate whether it is possible to create wayfinding instructions that communicate survey information, without

As the actions of individuals contribute substantially to climate change, identifying factors that underpin environmentally-relevant behaviors represents an important step towards modifying behavior and mitigating climate change impacts. This paper introduces a sequential model in which antecedent psychological and socio-demographic variables predict climate change risk perceptions, which lead to enhanced

We analyzed the relations between exposure to news describing a natural disaster and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) with 241 Italian adults, surveyed twice, before and after a severe earthquake. Our results were compatible with the idea that the exposure to earthquake news led to an increase in RWA among people who had low, but not among who had relatively high, authoritarian levels before the event

Monetary rewards are effective for promoting environmental protection. But can protecting the environment for financial reasons result in durable increases in people's inherent motivation to protect the environment—that is, their environmental attitude? With this research, we aimed to experimentally test the long-term efficacy of financial incentive/reward interventions. We randomly assigned a sample

Racial/ethnic minorities and lower-socioeconomic (SES) groups in the U.S. face disproportionate environmental risks, which may hold implications for how these groups construe environmental issues, relative to other segments of the public. We explored this possibility with a diverse sample of 1191 U.S. adults, hypothesizing that, relative to White and higher-SES respondents, non-White and lower-SES

Past research offered evidence that cosmopolitan individuals behave more pro-environmentally. The current study systematically examined two mechanisms explaining why. One the one hand, cosmopolitan individuals acquire knowledge about global challenges concerning environmental crises and become aware of mitigating strategies. On the other hand, cosmopolitan individuals extend their prosociality beyond

Humans tend to encode the environment by means of two types of spatial relations: coordinate (metric) and categorical (nonmetric). The present research contributes to methods for disentangling the contribution of categorical and coordinates spatial relations in sketch maps and investigates the role of familiarity with spatial information in accurate encoding of these spatial relations. The results