Connection to nature and environmental activism: Politicized environmental identity mediates a relationship between identification with nature and observed environmental activist behaviour
Caroline M.L. Mackay, Florencia Cristoffanini, Joshua D. Wright, Scott D. Neufeld, Hanna F. Ogawa, Michael T. Schmitt
Abstract
We examined environmental activist behaviour as a function of two different forms of environmental identity: identification with nature (i.e., seeing oneself as part of nature, more often referred to as connectedness to nature) and politicized environmental identity (i.e., seeing oneself as a part of a collective struggle to protect the environment). We extend prior work that found politicized environmental identity mediates a relationship between identification with nature and self-reports of environmental activism (Schmitt, Mackay, et al., 2019) by using observed behavioural indicators of environmental activism: taking pro-environmental buttons (Study 1), donating to an environmental organization (Study 2), or writing pro-environmental letters to politicians (Study 3). In Study 2 the relationship between identification with nature and activist behaviour was fully mediated by politicized environmental identity. In Studies 1 and 3, politicized environmental identity partially mediated a relationship between identification with nature and observed activist behaviour. We estimated the mean effect size of the mediation pathways in all three studies using meta-analysis, which supported the mediation model.