The Impact of Nature Exposure on Pro-Environmental Behavior: an Experimental Investigation

Lisette Ibanez and Sébastien Roussel ()

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Abstract: Would people behave in more pro-environmentally after simply being exposed to a surrounding that is reminiscent of nature? In order to address this question, we carry out a laboratory experiment where we test participants' likelihood of carrying out two types of Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB): a monetary effort of donating to an Environmental Non-Governmental Organization (ENGO) that we call an eco-donation, and a non-monetary effort of recycling that we call an eco-action. We construct three different decision-making frameworks through showing participants videos of an urban setting, a nature setting and a "positive emotions" setting (not linked to nature). We find that exposure to nature boosts both eco-donations and eco-actions. Our results highlight that there is no direct link between these PEB in terms of spillover effects. Interestingly, the impact of nature exposure on eco-donation is greater on individuals with a lowcenvironmental consciousness score, whereas the impact on eco-action is greater on individuals with a high level of environmental consciousness. Our work provides new avenues for designing environmental protection policies based on behavioral insights.

Keywords: Behavioral economics; Charitable giving; Dictator game; Experimental economics; Nature; Pro; Environmental Behavior (PEB); Recycling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09-10
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Published in 7th FAERE Annual Conference, Sep 2020, Grenoble, France

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Working Paper: The Impact of Nature Exposure on Pro-Environmental Behavior: an Experimental Investigation (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03028427

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