Katherine D. Arbuthnott

To deal with global environmental and humanitarian crises, humanity needs cooperation at all levels from local to international. One significant barrier to cooperation is widespread distrust of other people, institutions, and nations, which is founded on a mistaken belief that human nature is fundamentally selfish. To achieve the UN Sustainability Goals (SDGs) in time to preserve a livable planet for future generations, innate human cooperation needs to be unshackled. Research, both real-world and experimental, consistently shows that most people are motivated by concern for others, disconfirming the theory of essential human selfishness. This evidence is not widely known, even among psychologists. The discipline of psychology could play a vital role in environmental action by widely disseminating this evidence to correct our mistaken view of human nature. To that end, this paper describes a sample of the evidence showing intuitive altruism and discusses factors such as wealth and distrust that suppress cooperation.

Given the value of natural environments for climate change solutions and human health, public support for preserving and restoring natural ecosystems is important. One avenue to such support is to increase connection to nature, so it is important to understand factors that influence this characteristic. In the context of Songs for Nature workshops, we examined whether online and outdoor nature contact increase nature connection in a similar manner. Results indicated that online workshops also improved mood, but they did not significantly increase nature connection ratings. Outdoor workshops improved both nature connection and mood. This suggests that both online and outdoor environmental programs can influence emotions but outdoor experiences in natural settings may be necessary to strengthen nature connection.

We conducted two field studies to examine whether songwriting retreats held in a natural setting would increase nature connectedness, as well as improve emotional well-being and performance on a creative reasoning task. In the first study, high school students took part in songwriting instruction either in their school or at a national wildlife conservation area. Results showed that the natural setting uniquely increased nature connection, while both settings improved mood and creative reasoning performance. In the second study, we observed similar effects for adults who attended songwriting retreats at the same conservation area and compared this to results from a science-based workshop in another remote natural area to assess whether nature connection effects were entirely attributable to nature contact. The findings of these studies imply that both musical creativity and outdoor education experiences improve well-being, while outdoor education also increases nature connectedness, and songwriting also increases creative reasoning.

There is robust evidence that contact with the natural world improves human health, including emotional well-being. However, the specific conditions of emotional benefits of nature contact are sparsely understood. Two studies were conducted with university students to examine whether the duration of nature contact influences the magnitude of benefits for both hedonic (positive and negative affect) and self-transcendent emotions. Study 1 investigated whether 5 minutes of sedentary nature contact influenced both emotion types, and Study 2 examined whether mood improvements are sensitive to the duration of nature contact (5 vs. 15 minutes). Results indicate that brief nature contact reliably improved both hedonic and self-transcendent emotions, and that the duration of contact in the range tested had no impact on this improvement.

Commons are resources shared by a group of people, and are studied using the commons dilemma paradigm. Despite Hardin’s prediction that the only sustainable management options are government regulation or private ownership, sustainable commons management has been observed with unregulated groups; however, global commons such as the atmosphere and oceans seem to conform to the prediction of “tragedy” because self-interests among users lead to degradation of the commons through overuse. The present study examined whether the factors of commons type (consumption or waste disposal) and cost (money or time) influence individual self-constraint in harvesting/polluting decisions to prolong the longevity of the shared resource, in the absence of social communication. Results indicate an interaction of the two factors: Individual self-constraint was greatest with the combination of disposal commons and time cost. These findings suggest that creative strategies to manage global commons may be possible, at least for waste-disposal commons.

Loss aversion is observed both in psychological research and life: Individuals will work harder to avoid losing something than to gain the same thing. Most previous research examining the impact of gain versus loss framing has used personal economic or health decisions, such as preferred investments or health treatments. The present study examined whether goal framing also influences decisions about public resources such as economic development and environmental protection. After reading descriptions of the gains or losses associated with one of these issues, participants rated their concern and support for public actions related to several economic, environmental, and social actions. Results indicated loss aversion: Ratings were higher when losses associated with failing to adopt development or protection programs were emphasized. Thus, decision biases associated with goal framing may apply to decisions about public as well as personal resources. The implications of these findings for policy and communications professions are discussed.

Tailoring teaching strategies to accommodate students' sensory learning styles (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic) is widely recommended across all levels of education from kindergarten to university. However, research stretching across five decades suggests that such tailoring does not enhance students' learning. In contrast, research does indicate strong learning benefits for methods such as integrative elaboration, distribution during learning, and frequent recall of learned material. This paper reviews evidence of learning associated with teaching focused on both sensory learning styles and general memory processes to encourage educators to adopt more evidence-based methods to enhance effective instruction.

Experiences in natural settings, and indirect nature experiences such as films, increase both well-being and environmentally protective behavior. Thus, public facilities such as natural history museums may facilitate pro-environmental behavior changes. In three studies, we examined nature connection, well-being, and spontaneous well-being goals as a function of exposure to museum exhibits or parks. Participants recruited in parks reported higher nature connection than those in indoor public locations. Among museum visitors, touring the exhibits did not influence nature connection, but did increase the number of pro-environmental well-being goals. When participants were randomly assigned to view a museum or a control presentation, those who viewed the museum presentation reported both higher nature connection and more pro-environmental goals. These results suggest that natural history museums and parks provide public settings in which people are more likely to be receptive to environmental information and to reflect on options for personal action.