The Effect Of Awe On Environmentally Friendly Behavior And Its Mechanism

Environmental deterioration is one of the most troubling problems of humanity,and poses severe threats to the sustainable development of humankind.Although people's awareness of environmental protection has increased,there are still many people in the real life who do not protect the environment.Past studies found that people's low level of pro-environmental behavior is due to negative descriptive norms,so it's very important to explore the factors which can promote environmentally friendly behaviors,also can weaken the influence of negative descriptive norms on individual environmental behaviors.Recent many empirical studies have shown that emotions are important driving factors that can potentially influence environmental behaviors.Awe is a complex emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that transcend current frames of reference.A number of studies have proved that awe can promote people's prosocial behavior,but the relationship between awe and environmentally friendly behavior is still unclear.When feel awe,people will define themselves from the universal level,perceive themselves as part of something larger,and feel a connection with the surroundings and nature,so we believe that awe can promote environmentally friendly behaviors by promoting connectedness with nature.The present study is aim to explore the influence of awe on environmentally friendly behaviors through three empirical studies,and to further explore whether awe can weaken the influence of negative descriptive norms on pro-environment behavior.Study 1 was a survey study testing the relationship between dispositional awe and daily ecological behavior,and the result demonstrated that dispositional awe was positively correlated with daily ecological behavior,and connectedness with nature played a mediating role,among 302 undergraduates.Study2 conducted two priming experiments to test the causal relationship and the psychological mechanisms between induced awe and environmentally friendly behaviors,and also explore whether a nonnature-based induction of awe could promote environmentally friendly behaviors.Study 3 induced awe through Virtual Reality and verified the interaction between awe and descriptive norms on pro-environment behavior.The three empirical studies as a whole can draw the following conclusions:(1)Dispositional awe was positively correlated with daily ecological behavior.Individual with high trait awe make more environmentally friendly behaviors,and connectedness with nature plays a mediating role.(2)Individuals who are induced awe can also show more environmentally friendly behaviors,and a nonnature-based induction of awe can also promote environmentally f:riendly behaviors.(3)Connectedness with nature mediates the effect of awe on environmentally friendly behaviors.(4)There is an interaction between awe and descriptive norms.Awe can weaken the influence of negative descriptive norms on environmentally friendly behaviors,that is,when the most people around don't protect the environment,the individuals induced awe still show a high level of environmentally friendly behavior.