Effect Of Materialistic Values On Pro-environment Behavior Among College Students:The Role Of Nature Connectedness

Materialism,as a personal value,focuses on the importance of possessing material wealth.In the current era of rapid development of material civilization in human society,the materialist tendencies of our nationals are particularly prominent,especially for the group of adolescents.Some studies have shown that individuals with materialistic tendencies tend to pay too much attention to objects and money,but weaken their sense of social responsibility and inhibit the occurrence of prosocial behaviors and activities.However,the existence of pro-environmental behavior as a special form of prosocial behavior is closely related to the well-being and interests of others,groups and organizations,mainly due to the good social responsibility of people.In recent years,along with the development of industrialized society,environmental damage has emerged in an endless stream,and environmental protection issues have become increasingly prominent.How to protect the environment has become the focus of global attention.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the relationship between materialistic values and environmentally friendly behaviors,and clarify the psychological mechanism of action,which could contribute to carry out targeted interventions for improving the level of individuals participating in environmental activities.Based on this,through the combination of relevant and experimental research methods,this paper gradually examines the relationship between materialistic values and individual pro-environment behavior,and the mediating role of natural connection between materialistic values and pro-environment behavior.Finally,it explores the short-term mitigation of the negative effects of enhancing natural connection on materialism.In the first study,277 college students were recruited to explore the relationship between materialism values and environmental behaviors of contemporary college students,and the mediating role of natural connections.It was found that high materialist college students have lower environmental behavior than low-substance college students,and the mediating effect of natural connection between materialistic values and environmentally friendly behavior is significant.In the second study,the experimental method was used to further explore the causal relationship between materialism and environmentally friendly behavior,and the mediating role of natural connection in the process of materialistic values affecting environmentally friendly behavior.In this study,62 students were recruited and randomly divided into two groups.The picture-initiating method was used to make a group of subjects perceive a higher level of materialism,while the other group was a control group.The results showed that compared with the control group,the materialistic initiation group had a more negative attitude toward environmental behavior,while the natural connection had a significant mediating effect between materialism and environmental behavior.The lower the individual’s materialistic tendency,the higher the level of natural connection,and the higher the tendency of environmentally friendly behavior.In the third study,the questionnaire of College Students’ materialistic values was used to screen out the subjects with high and low levels of materialistic tendencies,and to explore the mitigation and intervention effects of improving natural connection on the negative effects of pro-environment behavior of high materialistic tendencies.Subjects with different levels of materialistic values were randomly divided into two groups.They participated in the natural contact group and the non-natural contact group respectively.Finally,the pro-environment level of all subjects was measured.The results showed that the pro-environmental behavior of students in the natural contact group is higher than that in the non-natural contact group in the high materialism subjects,while there is no significant difference between the natural contact group and the non-natural contact group in the low materialism students.This paper examines the level of pro-environment behavior of college students from the perspective of materialist values,systematically explains its mechanism,and tries to put forward reasonable and scientific mitigation methods,which can provide reference for promoting and encouraging more pro-environment activities.