Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
4-2020
Abstract
Past research offered evidence that cosmopolitan individuals behave more pro-environmentally. The current study systematically examined two mechanisms explaining why. One the one hand, cosmopolitan individuals acquire knowledge about global challenges concerning environmental crises and become aware of mitigating strategies. On the other hand, cosmopolitan individuals extend their prosociality beyond humankind and develop an emotional affinity toward the natural environment. We set out to provide the first empirical support for these cognitive and emotive pathways accounting for why cosmopolitan individuals tend to be more environmentally friendly. We recruited a total of 1,159 participants to systematically investigate the simultaneous mediation of cognitive and emotive characteristics of cosmopolitan individuals on their commitment to and engagement in pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). The results from both the large community study (a Singaporean sample; N = 959) and the replication study (an American sample; N = 200) revealed that cosmopolitan orientation fostered both the acquisition of knowledge and emotional affinity toward nature, while emotional affinity was a stronger predictor for commitment to and frequency of PEBs. Theoretical and practical implications for a nuanced understanding of the motivational value of the cognitive and emotive pathways on PEBs are discussed.
Keywords
Commitment to pro-environmental behavior, Cosmopolitan orientation, Emotional affinity toward nature, Frequency of pro-environmental behavior, Knowledge acquisition, Pro-environmentalism
Discipline
Applied Behavior Analysis | Psychology | Social Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Volume
68
First Page
1
Last Page
8
ISSN
0272-4944
Identifier
10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101395
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
ITO, Kenichi, LEUNG, Angela K. Y., & HUANG, Tengjiao.(2020). Why do cosmopolitan individuals tend to be more pro-environmentally committed? The mediating pathways via knowledge acquisition and emotional affinity toward nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 68, 1-8.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3183
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101395