Gratitude to nature promotes sustainability and is linked to both anthropomorphism of nature and ecospirituality. Thus, these factors may mediate the effects of nature gratitude on pro-environmental behavioral intentions. The effects of nature gratitude may also be strongest when nature is explicitly anthropomorphized or when people consider a natural place of personal importance. Therefore, this study examined the effect of writing gratitude letters to Mother Nature and natural places on pro-environmental intentions, anthropomorphism, and ecospirituality. We hypothesized that participants randomly assigned to write gratitude letters to Mother Nature, in contrast to participants who write gratitude letters to a natural place or write about their morning routine (control condition), will express increased pro-environmental intent due to increased anthropomorphism and ecospirituality. In addition, we hypothesized that writing gratitude letters to a natural place would lead to more pro-environmental outcomes compared with the control condition. Writing gratitude letters to Mother Nature led to greater ecospirituality compared with a control letter (although not compared with the natural place letter, contrary to our hypotheses). Writing gratitude letters to a natural place led to both greater ecospirituality and anthropomorphism compared with a control letter. There was no overall effect of experimental condition on pro-environmental intentions and mixed evidence for an indirect effect of the natural place letter via anthropomorphism and ecospirituality. Path analyses supported that nature gratitude serially affects ecospirituality by first increasing anthropomorphism. Future research should continue to investigate how emotions such as gratitude can be leveraged to motivate action that protects our planet. Key Words: Gratitude—Mother Nature—Pro-environmental intent—Anthropomorphism—Ecospirituality
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AustF., DiedenhofenB., UllrichS., & MuschJ. (2013). Seriousness checks are useful to improve data validity in online research. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 527–535; doi: 10.3758/s13428-012-0265-2
2.
BarrettJ. L. (2000). Exploring the natural foundations of religion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 29–34; doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01419-9
3.
BilletM. I., BaimelA., SahakariS. S., SchallerM., & NorenzayanA. (2023). Ecospirituality: The psychology of moral concern for nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 87, 102001; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102001
4.
BrehmS. S., & BrehmJ. W. (2013). Psychological reactance: A theory of freedom and control. Academic Press.
5.
BüssingA., Rodrigues RecchiaD., DienbergT., SurzykiewiczJ., & BaumannK. (2021). Awe/gratitude as an experiential aspect of spirituality and its association to perceived positive changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 642716.
6.
CaragolJ. A., JohnsonA. R., & KwanB. M. (2022). A gratitude intervention to improve clinician stress and professional satisfaction: A pilot and feasibility trial. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 57, 103–116; doi: 10.1177/0091217420982112
7.
ChenL., LiuJ., FuL., GuoC., & ChenY. (2022). The impact of gratitude on connection with nature: The mediating role of positive emotions of self-transcendence. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 908138; doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.908138
CunhaL. F., PellandaL. C., & ReppoldC. T. (2019). Positive psychology and gratitude interventions: A randomized clinical trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 584; doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584
10.
EmmonsR. A., & McCulloughM. E. (Eds.). (2004). The psychology of gratitude. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150100.001.0001
11.
EpleyN., WaytzA., & CacioppoJ. T. (2007). On seeing human: A three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. Psychological Review, 114, 864–886; doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.864
12.
FaulF., ErdfelderE., LangA.-G., & BuchnerA. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191; doi: 10.3758/BF03193146
13.
FitzgeraldP. (1998). Gratitude and justice. Ethics, 109, 119–153; doi: 10.1086/233876
GervaisW. M. (2013). Perceiving minds and Gods: How mind perception enables, constrains, and is triggered by belief in Gods. Perspectives on Psychological Science: a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 8, 380–394; doi: 10.1177/1745691613489836
16.
GiffordR. (2011). The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation. The American Psychologist, 66, 290–302; doi: 10.1037/a0023566
17.
GuthrieS. (2020). Religion as anthropomorphism. In The Oxford handbook of evolutionary psychology and religion. (LiddleJ. & ShackelfordT. Eds.). Oxford University Press: pp.48–68.
18.
HartP. S., & FeldmanL. (2018). Would it be better to not talk about climate change? The impact of climate change and air pollution frames on support for regulating power plant emissions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 60, 1–8; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.08.013
19.
HayesA. F. (2022). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Publications.
20.
HenrichJ., HeineS. J., & NorenzayanA. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61–83; doi: 10.1017/S0140525X0999152X
21.
JacobsT. P., & McConnellA. R. (2022). Self-transcendent emotion dispositions: Greater connections with nature and more sustainable behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101797; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101797
22.
JacobsT. P., & McConnellA. R. (2024). Gratitude letters to nature: Effects on self-nature representations and pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 96, 102319; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102319
23.
LambertN. M., GrahamS. M., & FinchamF. D. (2009). A prototype analysis of gratitude: Varieties of gratitude experiences. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1193–1207; doi: 10.1177/0146167209338071
24.
LangeF., & DewitteS. (2022). The work for environmental protection task: A consequential web-based procedure for studying pro-environmental behavior. Behavior Research Methods, 54, 133–145; doi: 10.3758/s13428-021-01617-2
25.
MaY., DixonG., & HmielowskiJ. D. (2019). Psychological reactance from reading basic facts on climate change: The role of prior views and political identification. Environmental Communication, 13, 71–86; doi: 10.1080/17524032.2018.1548369
26.
ManleyK. E., HackenburgD. M., MarquinaT., & GouldR. K. (2022). Gratitude for nature: Abundant appreciation and rare reciprocity in free response reflections. Ecopsychology; doi: 10.1089/eco.2022.0022
27.
MarquinaT., GouldR. K., & MurdochD. (2023). ‘Hey, tree. You are my friend’: Assessing multiple values of nature through letters to trees. People and Nature, 5, 415–430; doi: 10.1002/pan3.10334
28.
McCulloughM. E., KilpatrickS. D., EmmonsR. A., & LarsonD. B. (2001). Is gratitude a moral affect? Psychological Bulletin, 127, 249–266; doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.249
29.
McCulloughM. E., & TsangJ.-A. (2004). Parent of the virtues?: The prosocial contours of gratitude. In The Psychology of Gratitude (EmmonsR. A. & McCulloughM. E. Eds.). Oxford University Press: pp.123–141 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150100.003.0007
30.
MorrisB. S., ChrysochouP., ChristensenJ. D., OrquinJ. L., BarrazaJ., ZakP. J., & MitkidisP. (2019). Stories vs. facts: Triggering emotion and action-taking on climate change. Climatic Change, 154, 19–36; doi: 10.1007/s10584-019-02425-6
31.
NaitoT., MatsudaT., IntasuwanP., ChuawanleeW., ThanachananS., OunthitiwatJ., & FukushimaM. (2010). Gratitude for, and regret toward, nature: Relationships to proenvironmental intent of university students from japan. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 38, 993–1008; doi: 10.2224/sbp.2010.38.7.993
32.
NorenzayanA., GervaisW. M., & TrzesniewskiK. H. (2012). Mentalizing deficits constrain belief in a personal god. PloS One, 7, e36880; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036880
33.
O’ConnellB. H., O’SheaD., & GallagherS. (2017). Feeling thanks and saying thanks: A randomized controlled trial examining if and how socially oriented gratitude journals work. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73, 1280–1300; doi: 10.1002/jclp.22469
34.
SimmonsJ. P., NelsonL. D., & SimonsohnU. (2021). Pre-registration: Why and how. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 31, 151–162; doi: 10.1002/jcpy.1208
35.
StellarJ. E., GordonA. M., PiffP. K., CordaroD., AndersonC. L., BaiY., MaruskinL. A., & KeltnerD. (2017). Self-transcendent emotions and their social functions: Compassion, gratitude, and awe bind us to others through prosociality. Emotion Review, 9, 200–207; doi: 10.1177/1754073916684557
36.
SuganthiL. (2019). Ecospirituality: A scale to measure an individual’s reverential respect for the environment. Ecopsychology, 11, 110–122; doi: 10.1089/eco.2018.0065
37.
SyropoulosS., WatkinsH. M., ShariffA. F., HodgesS. D., & MarkowitzE. M. (2020). The role of gratitude in motivating intergenerational environmental stewardship. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 72, 101517; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101517
38.
TamK.-P. (2014). Anthropomorphism of nature and efficacy in coping with the environmental crisis. Social Cognition, 32, 276–296; doi: 10.1521/soco.2014.32.3.276
39.
TamK.-P. (2019). Anthropomorphism of nature, environmental guilt, and pro-environmental behavior. Sustainability, 11, 5430; doi: 10.3390/su11195430
40.
TamK.-P. (2022). Gratitude to nature: Presenting a theory of its conceptualization, measurement, and effects on pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 79, 101754; doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101754
41.
TamK.-P., LeeS.-L., & ChaoM. M. (2013). Saving Mr. Nature: Anthropomorphism enhances connectedness to and protectiveness toward nature. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 514–521; doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.02.001
42.
TropeY., & LibermanN. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117, 440–463; doi: 10.1037/a0018963
43.
United Nations General Assembly. (2009). Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly on 22 April 2009: 63/278. International Mother Earth Day, http://undocs.org/A/RES/63/278
44.
WaytzA., CacioppoJ., & EpleyN. (2010). Who sees human?: The stability and importance of individual differences in anthropomorphism. Perspectives on Psychological Science: a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 5, 219–232; doi: 10.1177/1745691610369336
45.
WestlandR. E. (2024). Earth gratitude at the Canadian Institute of Mining Convention: An ecofeminist and ecopsychological analysis. Ecopsychology, 16, 99–106; doi: 10.1089/eco.2023.0032
46.
WhiteC. J. M., & BilletM. I. (2024). The roles of anthropomorphism, spirituality, and gratitude in pro-environmental attitudes. Religion, Brain, & Behavior, 1–19; doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2024.2363759
47.
WhitmarshL., O’NeillS., & LorenzoniI. (2013). Public engagement with climate change: What do we know and where do we go from here? International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 9, 7–25; doi: 10.1386/macp.9.1.7_1
48.
WillardA. K., CinglL., & NorenzayanA. (2020). Cognitive biases and religious belief: A path model replication in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with a focus on anthropomorphism. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11, 97–106; doi: 10.1177/1948550619841629
49.
WilliamsM. O., WhitmarshL., & ChríostD. M. G. (2021). The association between anthropomorphism of nature and pro-environmental variables: A systematic review. Biological Conservation, 255, 109022; doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109022
50.
WirtzD., GordonC. L., & StallsJ. (2014). Gratitude and spirituality: A review of theory and research. In Religion and Spirituality Across Cultures (Kim-PrietoC.Ed.). Springer. Netherlands; Vol. 9, pp.287–301; doi: 10.1007/978-94-017-8950-9_15
YangY., SunL., HanB., & LiuP. (2023). The trajectory of anthropomorphism and pro-environmental behavior: A serial mediation model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 2393; doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032393
53.
YouattR. (2017). Personhood and the rights of nature: The new subjects of contemporary earth politics. International Political Sociology, 11, 39–54; doi: 10.1093/ips/olw032
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
