Dean Seminar2008 Enviro

The Role of (Human) Nature on Environmental Action

Michelle VergesIndiana University, South Bend

mverges@iusb.edu

I Couldn’t Have Done it Without You

• Dean Lynn Williams• Department of Psychology, IUSB• Sara Unsworth, San Diego State University• Sean Duffy, Rutgers University• That’s right - You!

The Bag Lady

APS (May, 2007)

Is there a relationship between environmental attitudes and

sustainable behaviors?

Think of nature…

Connection to Nature

• Like bears, humans are part of nature.• We evolved and have spent 99% of human

history as hunter gatherers in natural environments

• It would be surprising if humans were not intimately connected to nature

• But what does it mean to be connected to nature?

Connection to Nature• One school of thought: Connection to nature

mediates pro-environmental behavior and action (Schultz, Mayer & Franz)

• Developed an implicit association task (IAT) that measures connection with nature.

• IAT measures implicit attitudes – those that one cannot (or choose not) to verbalize.

• For instance, do you believe that men make better doctors and women make better secretaries?

Women

Men

On the next several slides you will see typical male and female

names. If the name is female, tap your left hand on the desk. If the

name is male, tap your right hand on the desk .

Women

Men

John

Women

Men

Robert

Women

Men

Jane

Women

Men

Michael

Women

Men

Jennifer

Women

Men

Mary

Women

Men

Karen

Women

Men

Bill

Women

Men

Thomas

Women

Men

Kate

Career

Family

On the next several slides you will see typical career and family roles. If the word is career, tap

your left hand on the desk. If the word is home, tap your right

hand on the desk.

Career

Family

management

Career

Family

relatives

Career

Family

professional

Career

Family

corporation

Career

Family

marriage

Career

Family

children

Career

Family

career

Career

Family

parents

Career

Family

salary

Career

Family

home

Career

Family

office

Career

Family

business

Career

Family

family

Career

Family

wedding

Block A

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

On the next several slides you will see typical career and family roles, as well as names. Please categorize as you did before.

management

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

children

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

John

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Michael

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

relatives

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

office

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Karen

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

corporation

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

marriage

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Mary

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

parents

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

career

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Jennifer

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

salary

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

professional

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

business

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Bill

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

family

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Jane

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

home

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Robert

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Kate

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

wedding

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Thomas

Careeror

Male

Family or

Female

Block B

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

On the next several slides you will see typical career and family roles, as well as names. Please categorize as you did before

management

Family or

Male

Careeror

Female

children

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

John

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Michael

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

relatives

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

office

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Karen

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

corporation

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

marriage

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Mary

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

parents

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

career

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Jennifer

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

salary

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

professional

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

business

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Bill

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

family

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Jane

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

home

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Robert

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Kate

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

wedding

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Thomas

Careeror

Female

Family or

Male

Which was easier?• Block A or Block B?

• For most people – even those who say they believe in equal working rights, block A is easier than Block B.

Implicit connection to nature• Schultz et al. (2004) developed a

‘connection to nature IAT’

• Relative speed of categorizing SELF (I, me my, mine, myself) and NOT ME (it, they, them, their, other) with NATURE and BUILT words

• Found people overwhelmingly connected to nature

Connection to Nature IAT

• If people have a “primitive” belief that favors nature over the built environment, then stimulus valence should have no effect on people’s implicit connections to nature.

• We hypothesized, however, that emotional connotations derived from words influence people’s connection to nature.

Original Items• NATURE: animals, birds,

plants, whales, trees

• BUILT: building, car, city, factory, street

New Test Items• NATURE: beach, dove, fish,

flower, river; bees, fungus, manure, snake, thorn

• BUILT: bed, clothing, house, toy, trophy; bullet, cellar, coffin, needle, tomb

Undergraduates from Rutgers University participated in one of three IAT experiments:

1 - Connection to nature IAT using original stimulus items2 - IAT using positive nature and negative built items3 - IAT using negative nature and positive built items

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StandardNature IAT

PositiveNature IAT

NegativeNature IAT

Stronger connectionto nature

Stronger connection

to built

Results

(Verges & Duffy, in press, Environment and Behavior)

• Methodological point: Able to replicate prior findings regarding people’s implicit connections with nature

• Extended those findings to reveal a tendency to implicitly associate oneself to positive aspects of the built and natural environments

• Contextual information may be a factor when considering people’s association with nature…

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

• If valence moderates implicit connection with nature, might emotional associations of nature influence connectedness as well?

• In temperate climates, it is COLD during the winter, and mild during autumn and spring.

• Spring is known for its pastel of flowers,

autumn for its golden leaves, winter for its grayish browns?

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

• People spend time in nature during spring and autumn, but less so in winter.

• In winter people are protected from nature by coats that try to keep nature at bay.

• Might there be seasonal and meteorological variations regarding connection to nature?

• To test this, we ran the Schultz et al. (2004) from October to April, keeping track of weather and precipitation.

-0.8

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0

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Autumn Winter Spring

z-sc

ore

CN IATAltruistic Concern

Biospheric ConcernEgocentric Concern

Kaiser/Wilson

Stronger connection with nature

Stronger connection with built

(Duffy & Verges, under review, Journal of Environmental Psychology)

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0

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Rain No Rain

z s

co

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CN IAT

Altruistic Concern

Biospheric Concern

Egoistic Concern

Kaiser/Wilson

Stronger connection with nature

Stronger connection with built

(Duffy & Verges, under review, Journal of Environmental Psychology)

• Stronger evidence for contextual factors and connectedness with nature

• In layman’s terms, people seem to be “fair-weather friends” regarding their association with nature

• Findings bear implications regarding current views on connectedness with nature. But do these findings have anything to say about conservation behaviors?

Without bribing, forcing, telling, or relying on spurious emotions, how can we reliably improvepro-environmental behaviors?

Started noticing a pattern...

Started noticing a pattern...

Control condition

Experimental condition

Results

(Duffy & Verges, in press, Environment and Behavior)

Results

• The design of the environment profoundly shapes behavior

• Not just limited to recycling...we can design environments that may afford myriad behaviors (i.e., streets that afford not getting lost, buildings that afford efficient work...)

• It is hard to change people’s attitudes or beliefs, but one can tacitly affect behavior by building better environments.

Thank You!