Exposure to nature can promote pro-environmental behavior: Mediating role of temporal discounting

Abstract

One possible explanation for the lack of pro-environmental behavior among the public is that the benefits of combating climate change are long-term and distant. Temporal discounting is a pervasive tendency to prefer small immediate gains to large delayed benefits, which may lead to a lack of motivation to engage in pro-environmental behavior. However, exposure to nature can reduce this tendency and by extension may promote pro-environmental behavior. Two behavioral experiments were conducted to investigate whether exposure to natural (vs. urban) scenes would induce lower discounting and increase the tendency toward pro-environmental behavior. We demonstrated that exposure to natural (vs. urban) scenes was associated with a lower level of discounting and a greater tendency toward pro-environmental behavior, including energy-saving use of air conditioning (Experiment 1), willingness to participate in beach cleaning (Experiment 2), and choosing meals with less environmental impact (Experiment 2). Mediation analysis indicated that the discounting tendency mediated the relationship between exposure to natural scenes and pro-environmental behavior. This study provides the first experimental evidence that temporal discounting accounts for the association between exposure to natural (vs. urban) scenes and the tendency toward pro-environmental behavior. Our findings support the development of a novel strategy for promoting pro-environmental behavior.