Exposure to positive and negative nature affects cooperative behavior: The mediating role of cooperative expectations
SUN Qian CHENG Hong-li LIU Yong-fang
(Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062)
Abstract:The present work aims to investigate how exposure either positive or negative nature affects cooperative behavior and assess the mediating role of cooperative expectations in this causal relation. A total of 186 participants were randomly presented with self-developed pictures of positive nature, negative nature, and non-nature. Subsequently, participants were required to play public goods game first, and then were required to indicate their cooperative expectations towards other players. Results showed that exposure to positive nature increased cooperative behavior, while exposure to negative nature decreased cooperative behavior. Moreover, positive nature (vs. non-nature) facilitated participants' cooperative behavior by increasing cooperative expectations of their interaction partner. These results suggest that exposure to nature with different valence affects cooperative behavior in different pathways. The current study fills a gap in existing research and sheds light on how to use the natural environment to promote cooperation.
孙倩,程红利,刘永芳. 正负性自然环境对合作行为的影响:合作预期的中介作用[J]. 应用心理学, 2023, 29(1): 12-19.
SUN Qian, CHENG Hong-li, LIU Yong-fang. Exposure to positive and negative nature affects cooperative behavior: The mediating role of cooperative expectations. 应用心理学, 2023, 29(1): 12-19.