Empathy with nature promotes pro-environmental attitudes in preschool children.

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to explore whether empathy with nature (i.e., the tendency to understand and share the emotional experience of the natural world) contributes to pro-environmental attitudes in early childhood. In a correlational investigation (Study 1), 138 (M_age = 57.78 months) preschool children completed a battery of tasks to measure their pro-environmental attitudes, empathy with nature, and empathy with humans. We found that empathy with nature positively predicts pro-environmental attitudes, even beyond the predictive power of empathy with humans. In a quasi-experimental investigation (Study 2), 46 children from two parallel classes in the same preschool were recruited as the intervention (n = 23, M_age = 66.74 months) and control (n = 23, M_age = 67.61

SUBMITTER: Li Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11317190 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature