The Effect Of Natural Contact On Pro-environment Behavior

With the rapid development and advancement of industrialization and urbanization,people have obtained great material wealth,but the rapid development with the background of environmental sacrifice has also brought us "natural punishment",and a series of ecological environmental problems are increasingly prominent.At the same time,the development of information technology drives the way of life to be completed in the reinforced concrete room,making People’s Daily life and nature disjointed,and gradually reduce the psychological connection with nature.The relationship between man and nature is facing severe challenges.On one hand,the separation and opposition between man and nature triggers environmental crisis;on the other hand,it also brings negative effects on human’s cognition,psychology and social behavior.Therefore,this study considers that the relationship between human and nature,and the effects of natural contact are quantitatively investigated by using a scale with good psychological measurement attributes not found in previous studies,and the influence of natural contact on pro-environmental behaviors is explored.Study 1 developed and validated the Natural Contact Scale by sorting out the contents related to natural contact in previous literature,and combining with specific contents of the collected nature contact experience of college students.After pre-text,formal text and item selection,18 items were settled for the Natural Contact Scale,both positive and negative nature contact have 9 items.Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factors were conducted on a total of 742 samples in the preliminary and formal test.Among them,111 samples were collected in the preliminary test(93 valid samples),237 samples were collected in the second test,and 469 samples were formally tested(412 valid samples).The results showed that the positive and negative Natural Contact Scale had good reliability and validity,indicating that it can be used as an effective tool to measure positive and negative natural contact.Study 2 investigated the effect of positive and negative natural contact on pro-environmental behavior and the mediating effect of restorative experience and natural correlation through questionnaire.The natural contact scale,self-rated recovery scale,natural correlation scale and pro-environmental behavior scale were used to measure 674 valid samples(721 in total).Positive natural contact and negative natural contact are both positively correlated with pro-environment behavior,restorative experience and the connectedness to nature in the natural contact and play a role of sequence of intermediary between environmental behavior,namely positive natural contact and restorative experience ascension to the connectedness to nature to enhance,more environmental behavior,negative natural contact and restorative experience lower to the connectedness to nature weakened,less environmental behavior.In study 3,the effects of positive and negative natural contact were further examined by means of experimental design among random subjects.The 164 subjects were randomly divided into three groups,viewing positive,negative,and neutral(controlled)picture material,and then measuring restorative experience,connectedness to nature,and pro-environmental behavior.The results showed that,compared with the neutral condition,the positive natural contact condition had higher restorative experience,better performance in positive emotion and attention,and lower scores in negative emotion.Under the negative natural contact condition,the restorative experience was lower,the performance of positive emotion and attention was worse,and the score of negative emotion was higher.Restorative experience can positively predict the connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behavior.The sequential mediating effect of restorative experience and the connectedness to nature between natural contact and pro-environmental behavior is established.That is,positive natural contact can enhance the connectedness to nature by improving the restorative experience,thus affecting pro-environmental behavior.Negative natural contact can affect pro-environmental behavior by reducing the restorative experience and thus weakening the connectedness to nature.Three studies completed the preparation and testing of natural exposure scale and the effect and mechanism of natural exposure on pro-environmental behavior.Based on the preparation of the actual experience discriminant titer,this paper provides a tool for better measuring the natural contact experience.Correlation and experimental methods are used in combination to determine the effect of natural contact on the pro-environment behavior more reliably,and at the same time to determine the mediating effect of the restorative experience and the connectedness to nature.The results enrich the research evidence and theories related to natural exposure and provide the underlying psychological mechanism behind pro-environmental behavior.The implications of the findings are twofold:on the one hand,they can encourage people to strengthen their ties with nature,especially by increasing their positive natural contact;On the other hand,it can provide some references for how to increase the individual’s pro-environment behavior.