#environmentalpsychology — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #environmentalpsychology, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: May 15, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A classic psychology study on the calming effects of nature just got a massive update
New research published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that watching videos of natural environments, such as forests, helps people recover from stress more effectively than watching videos of urban environments. The findings provide evidence that nature imagery can positively influence a person’s emotional state. This offers a simple way to support mental well-being in spaces where actual nature is out of reach.
Scientists conducted this study to test the reliability of a highly influential experiment from 1991. That older experiment introduced the idea that simply looking at natural scenes could help the human body and mind recover from stress. Since the publication of that original paper, many hospitals, offices, and schools have used nature pictures to help calm people down.
Agnes van den Berg, an environmental psychology researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, led this new collaborative effort. “Although the original study is still widely cited as foundational evidence that exposure to natural environments, compared to urban environments, supports stress recovery, it had never been directly replicated across multiple sites using contemporary methods,” van den Berg noted. “We wanted to examine how robust and reproducible these effects are today, using a preregistered multisite design with a larger and more diverse sample.”
“One aspect we value about this project is that it contributes to the broader movement toward replication and transparency in people-environment research,” van den Berg added. “Classic studies can strongly shape scientific fields and public discourse, so it is important to revisit influential findings with modern open science practices and collaborative methods.”
Ten different research teams across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden joined forces for this project. They recruited a total of 959 participants for the experiment. The sample was nearly evenly split between men and women, with an average age of 22 years. The scientists assigned each participant to watch a specific set of videos while hooked up to physical monitoring equipment.
First, all participants watched a 10-minute video designed to cause a moderate amount of stress. This video featured reenactments of industrial workplace accidents, such as people slipping or being struck by heavy objects. The scientists added ominous background music to the video to ensure it effectively raised the viewers’ stress levels.
After the stress-inducing video, the scientists randomly assigned participants to watch one of six 10-minute environmental videos. Two of these videos featured natural settings, specifically a forest and a stream. The other four videos showed urban settings, which included busy and quiet pedestrian areas, as well as busy and quiet traffic areas.
Throughout the process, the researchers measured the participants’ psychological and physical reactions. To track emotional states, the scientists asked participants to fill out a questionnaire at three different times. They answered questions before the stress video, right after the stress video, and after the environmental video. The questionnaire measured feelings of fear, anger, sadness, positive emotion, and attentiveness.
To track physical reactions, the researchers used a specialized monitoring device attached to the participants’ bodies. This device measured two different parts of the autonomic nervous system, which is the system that controls involuntary bodily functions. One part is the sympathetic nervous system, often called the fight-or-flight response. This system speeds up the heart and increases sweating during moments of danger or stress.
The researchers measured this fight-or-flight response by tracking changes in skin moisture and heart timing. The second part of the autonomic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system, often called the rest-and-digest response. This system helps calm the body down after a threat has passed. The researchers measured this calming response by tracking variations in the time between heartbeats, a concept known as heart rate variability.
The researchers found that the stress video worked exactly as intended. After watching the workplace accidents, participants reported feeling less positive and more afraid, angry, and sad. Their physical sensors also showed increases in the fight-or-flight response, confirming that they were experiencing a bodily state of stress.
During the recovery phase, the psychological results generally matched the findings from the original 1991 study. Participants who watched the natural environments reported a much larger increase in positive emotions compared to those who watched the urban scenes. They also experienced a greater decrease in feelings of anger and aggression after watching the forest or the stream.
The physical results presented a more complicated picture. The measures of the fight-or-flight response showed that stress levels decreased for everyone during the recovery phase, regardless of which environment video they watched. Unlike the original study, the nature videos did not lead to a faster reduction in this specific physical stress response.
However, the physical measures associated with the rest-and-digest response did show differences based on the video type. Participants who watched the forest video showed a much faster activation of their body’s calming system. This suggests that the forest setting specifically helped their bodies return to a physically relaxed state more quickly than the urban settings did.
“Our findings suggest that merely viewing nature can support recovery from acute stress, both psychologically and physiologically,” van den Berg told PsyPost. “One does not need to go into real nature to enjoy these effects. The effects were not dramatic or magical, but they were consistent across several measures and across research sites.”
“The findings also provide insight into the mechanisms behind the effects,” van den Berg noted. “In particular, the physiological effects seem to be driven by activation of the so-called ‘vagal brake’, a feedback signal from the stress system that tells the body that all is safe now.”
The researchers hope the public recognizes the accessibility of these benefits. “The broader message is that everyday contact with nature, even if it only involves looking out of the window or at a poster on a wall, may play a meaningful role in supporting mental and physical well-being,” van den Berg said.
Interestingly, the rapid relaxation response was most intense during the first three minutes of the nature videos. Van den Berg admitted she did not expect the physical effects to be so noticeable in a modern demographic. “To be honest, I was kind of surprised that part of the findings regarding the physiological effects of viewing nature were still present in the results,” van den Berg said.
“The sample consisted of nearly a thousand students who are used to viewing videos on social media such as TikTok and Instagram,” van den Berg added. “For this ‘Gen Z’ generation, I expected that it would be rather boring to view a video of a forest for 10 minutes, shot from a stationary point of view.” Despite these modern viewing habits, the physical effects persisted. “Indeed, the ‘all is safe now’ response to nature was strongest in the first 3 minutes of viewing the video,” van den Berg said.
The video of the natural stream did not produce this same calming physical effect. The rest-and-digest response of participants who watched the stream looked very similar to the response of those who watched the busy city streets. The researchers suspect this happened because the stream video featured the loud, fast-moving sound of rushing water, which the participants might have found disturbing rather than relaxing.
While the study provides evidence that viewing nature can aid in stress recovery, the researchers noted some caveats. “One important point is that this study does not imply that nature is a substitute for medical or psychological treatment,” van den Berg explained. “The effects observed were relatively modest short-term recovery effects following an experimental stressor.”
It is also important not to interpret the results as proof that all city environments are harmful. “It is also important not to oversimplify the findings into a strict ‘nature good, city bad’ narrative,” van den Berg added. “Urban environments can also provide a wealth of social, cultural, and psychological benefits, which are not captured by the videos used in our study.”
Future research could expand on these findings by testing a wider variety of natural and urban scenes. “Across the world many researchers are already following up on this seminal study,” van den Berg noted. “Much of this recent work has moved beyond exposure to simulated nature to more ecologically realistic and longitudinal approaches.”
“Preliminary findings provide insight into some of the characteristics of environments that matter most for recovery,” van den Berg explained. “For example, environmental characteristics such as biodiversity, water, soundscapes, perceived safety, familiarity, and cultural meaning may all play a role.”
Van den Berg plans to focus on the personal traits that change how individuals react to natural settings. “Personally, my research interests involve the role of individual factors that may make people more open to the beneficial effects of nature, such as gender, age, levels of acute and chronic stress, childhood nature experiences, and connectedness to nature,” van den Berg said.
Van den Berg shares much of her ongoing work online, including through her agency, Nature4People, and she also contributes to a large European project called Resonate focused on building human resilience through nature-based therapies.
The study, “Psychophysiological recovery from viewing nature and urban settings: A multisite replication,” was authored by A.E. Van den Berg, K. Dijkstra, D. Meuwese, F. Beute, P.M. Darcy, S. Dewitte, B. Gatersleben, C.J. Gidlow, C.M. Hägerhäll, J.A. Hipp, Y. Joye, Y.A.W. De Kort, S.C.M. Lechner, C. Neale, Å. Ode Sang, J. Roe, D.T. Scheepers, K. Smolders, H. Staats, R.S. Steensma, K.J. Wyles, and S.L. Koole.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #NatureVideoRecovery #PsychophysiologicalRecovery #NatureVsUrban #EnvironmentalPsychology #StressRecovery #VagalBrake #RestAndDigest #NatureExposure #MentalWellBeing #GenZScience
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DATE: May 15, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A classic psychology study on the calming effects of nature just got a massive update
New research published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that watching videos of natural environments, such as forests, helps people recover from stress more effectively than watching videos of urban environments. The findings provide evidence that nature imagery can positively influence a person’s emotional state. This offers a simple way to support mental well-being in spaces where actual nature is out of reach.
Scientists conducted this study to test the reliability of a highly influential experiment from 1991. That older experiment introduced the idea that simply looking at natural scenes could help the human body and mind recover from stress. Since the publication of that original paper, many hospitals, offices, and schools have used nature pictures to help calm people down.
Agnes van den Berg, an environmental psychology researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, led this new collaborative effort. “Although the original study is still widely cited as foundational evidence that exposure to natural environments, compared to urban environments, supports stress recovery, it had never been directly replicated across multiple sites using contemporary methods,” van den Berg noted. “We wanted to examine how robust and reproducible these effects are today, using a preregistered multisite design with a larger and more diverse sample.”
“One aspect we value about this project is that it contributes to the broader movement toward replication and transparency in people-environment research,” van den Berg added. “Classic studies can strongly shape scientific fields and public discourse, so it is important to revisit influential findings with modern open science practices and collaborative methods.”
Ten different research teams across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden joined forces for this project. They recruited a total of 959 participants for the experiment. The sample was nearly evenly split between men and women, with an average age of 22 years. The scientists assigned each participant to watch a specific set of videos while hooked up to physical monitoring equipment.
First, all participants watched a 10-minute video designed to cause a moderate amount of stress. This video featured reenactments of industrial workplace accidents, such as people slipping or being struck by heavy objects. The scientists added ominous background music to the video to ensure it effectively raised the viewers’ stress levels.
After the stress-inducing video, the scientists randomly assigned participants to watch one of six 10-minute environmental videos. Two of these videos featured natural settings, specifically a forest and a stream. The other four videos showed urban settings, which included busy and quiet pedestrian areas, as well as busy and quiet traffic areas.
Throughout the process, the researchers measured the participants’ psychological and physical reactions. To track emotional states, the scientists asked participants to fill out a questionnaire at three different times. They answered questions before the stress video, right after the stress video, and after the environmental video. The questionnaire measured feelings of fear, anger, sadness, positive emotion, and attentiveness.
To track physical reactions, the researchers used a specialized monitoring device attached to the participants’ bodies. This device measured two different parts of the autonomic nervous system, which is the system that controls involuntary bodily functions. One part is the sympathetic nervous system, often called the fight-or-flight response. This system speeds up the heart and increases sweating during moments of danger or stress.
The researchers measured this fight-or-flight response by tracking changes in skin moisture and heart timing. The second part of the autonomic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system, often called the rest-and-digest response. This system helps calm the body down after a threat has passed. The researchers measured this calming response by tracking variations in the time between heartbeats, a concept known as heart rate variability.
The researchers found that the stress video worked exactly as intended. After watching the workplace accidents, participants reported feeling less positive and more afraid, angry, and sad. Their physical sensors also showed increases in the fight-or-flight response, confirming that they were experiencing a bodily state of stress.
During the recovery phase, the psychological results generally matched the findings from the original 1991 study. Participants who watched the natural environments reported a much larger increase in positive emotions compared to those who watched the urban scenes. They also experienced a greater decrease in feelings of anger and aggression after watching the forest or the stream.
The physical results presented a more complicated picture. The measures of the fight-or-flight response showed that stress levels decreased for everyone during the recovery phase, regardless of which environment video they watched. Unlike the original study, the nature videos did not lead to a faster reduction in this specific physical stress response.
However, the physical measures associated with the rest-and-digest response did show differences based on the video type. Participants who watched the forest video showed a much faster activation of their body’s calming system. This suggests that the forest setting specifically helped their bodies return to a physically relaxed state more quickly than the urban settings did.
“Our findings suggest that merely viewing nature can support recovery from acute stress, both psychologically and physiologically,” van den Berg told PsyPost. “One does not need to go into real nature to enjoy these effects. The effects were not dramatic or magical, but they were consistent across several measures and across research sites.”
“The findings also provide insight into the mechanisms behind the effects,” van den Berg noted. “In particular, the physiological effects seem to be driven by activation of the so-called ‘vagal brake’, a feedback signal from the stress system that tells the body that all is safe now.”
The researchers hope the public recognizes the accessibility of these benefits. “The broader message is that everyday contact with nature, even if it only involves looking out of the window or at a poster on a wall, may play a meaningful role in supporting mental and physical well-being,” van den Berg said.
Interestingly, the rapid relaxation response was most intense during the first three minutes of the nature videos. Van den Berg admitted she did not expect the physical effects to be so noticeable in a modern demographic. “To be honest, I was kind of surprised that part of the findings regarding the physiological effects of viewing nature were still present in the results,” van den Berg said.
“The sample consisted of nearly a thousand students who are used to viewing videos on social media such as TikTok and Instagram,” van den Berg added. “For this ‘Gen Z’ generation, I expected that it would be rather boring to view a video of a forest for 10 minutes, shot from a stationary point of view.” Despite these modern viewing habits, the physical effects persisted. “Indeed, the ‘all is safe now’ response to nature was strongest in the first 3 minutes of viewing the video,” van den Berg said.
The video of the natural stream did not produce this same calming physical effect. The rest-and-digest response of participants who watched the stream looked very similar to the response of those who watched the busy city streets. The researchers suspect this happened because the stream video featured the loud, fast-moving sound of rushing water, which the participants might have found disturbing rather than relaxing.
While the study provides evidence that viewing nature can aid in stress recovery, the researchers noted some caveats. “One important point is that this study does not imply that nature is a substitute for medical or psychological treatment,” van den Berg explained. “The effects observed were relatively modest short-term recovery effects following an experimental stressor.”
It is also important not to interpret the results as proof that all city environments are harmful. “It is also important not to oversimplify the findings into a strict ‘nature good, city bad’ narrative,” van den Berg added. “Urban environments can also provide a wealth of social, cultural, and psychological benefits, which are not captured by the videos used in our study.”
Future research could expand on these findings by testing a wider variety of natural and urban scenes. “Across the world many researchers are already following up on this seminal study,” van den Berg noted. “Much of this recent work has moved beyond exposure to simulated nature to more ecologically realistic and longitudinal approaches.”
“Preliminary findings provide insight into some of the characteristics of environments that matter most for recovery,” van den Berg explained. “For example, environmental characteristics such as biodiversity, water, soundscapes, perceived safety, familiarity, and cultural meaning may all play a role.”
Van den Berg plans to focus on the personal traits that change how individuals react to natural settings. “Personally, my research interests involve the role of individual factors that may make people more open to the beneficial effects of nature, such as gender, age, levels of acute and chronic stress, childhood nature experiences, and connectedness to nature,” van den Berg said.
Van den Berg shares much of her ongoing work online, including through her agency, Nature4People, and she also contributes to a large European project called Resonate focused on building human resilience through nature-based therapies.
The study, “Psychophysiological recovery from viewing nature and urban settings: A multisite replication,” was authored by A.E. Van den Berg, K. Dijkstra, D. Meuwese, F. Beute, P.M. Darcy, S. Dewitte, B. Gatersleben, C.J. Gidlow, C.M. Hägerhäll, J.A. Hipp, Y. Joye, Y.A.W. De Kort, S.C.M. Lechner, C. Neale, Å. Ode Sang, J. Roe, D.T. Scheepers, K. Smolders, H. Staats, R.S. Steensma, K.J. Wyles, and S.L. Koole.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #NatureVideoRecovery #PsychophysiologicalRecovery #NatureVsUrban #EnvironmentalPsychology #StressRecovery #VagalBrake #RestAndDigest #NatureExposure #MentalWellBeing #GenZScience
-
DATE: May 15, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A classic psychology study on the calming effects of nature just got a massive update
New research published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that watching videos of natural environments, such as forests, helps people recover from stress more effectively than watching videos of urban environments. The findings provide evidence that nature imagery can positively influence a person’s emotional state. This offers a simple way to support mental well-being in spaces where actual nature is out of reach.
Scientists conducted this study to test the reliability of a highly influential experiment from 1991. That older experiment introduced the idea that simply looking at natural scenes could help the human body and mind recover from stress. Since the publication of that original paper, many hospitals, offices, and schools have used nature pictures to help calm people down.
Agnes van den Berg, an environmental psychology researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, led this new collaborative effort. “Although the original study is still widely cited as foundational evidence that exposure to natural environments, compared to urban environments, supports stress recovery, it had never been directly replicated across multiple sites using contemporary methods,” van den Berg noted. “We wanted to examine how robust and reproducible these effects are today, using a preregistered multisite design with a larger and more diverse sample.”
“One aspect we value about this project is that it contributes to the broader movement toward replication and transparency in people-environment research,” van den Berg added. “Classic studies can strongly shape scientific fields and public discourse, so it is important to revisit influential findings with modern open science practices and collaborative methods.”
Ten different research teams across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden joined forces for this project. They recruited a total of 959 participants for the experiment. The sample was nearly evenly split between men and women, with an average age of 22 years. The scientists assigned each participant to watch a specific set of videos while hooked up to physical monitoring equipment.
First, all participants watched a 10-minute video designed to cause a moderate amount of stress. This video featured reenactments of industrial workplace accidents, such as people slipping or being struck by heavy objects. The scientists added ominous background music to the video to ensure it effectively raised the viewers’ stress levels.
After the stress-inducing video, the scientists randomly assigned participants to watch one of six 10-minute environmental videos. Two of these videos featured natural settings, specifically a forest and a stream. The other four videos showed urban settings, which included busy and quiet pedestrian areas, as well as busy and quiet traffic areas.
Throughout the process, the researchers measured the participants’ psychological and physical reactions. To track emotional states, the scientists asked participants to fill out a questionnaire at three different times. They answered questions before the stress video, right after the stress video, and after the environmental video. The questionnaire measured feelings of fear, anger, sadness, positive emotion, and attentiveness.
To track physical reactions, the researchers used a specialized monitoring device attached to the participants’ bodies. This device measured two different parts of the autonomic nervous system, which is the system that controls involuntary bodily functions. One part is the sympathetic nervous system, often called the fight-or-flight response. This system speeds up the heart and increases sweating during moments of danger or stress.
The researchers measured this fight-or-flight response by tracking changes in skin moisture and heart timing. The second part of the autonomic nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system, often called the rest-and-digest response. This system helps calm the body down after a threat has passed. The researchers measured this calming response by tracking variations in the time between heartbeats, a concept known as heart rate variability.
The researchers found that the stress video worked exactly as intended. After watching the workplace accidents, participants reported feeling less positive and more afraid, angry, and sad. Their physical sensors also showed increases in the fight-or-flight response, confirming that they were experiencing a bodily state of stress.
During the recovery phase, the psychological results generally matched the findings from the original 1991 study. Participants who watched the natural environments reported a much larger increase in positive emotions compared to those who watched the urban scenes. They also experienced a greater decrease in feelings of anger and aggression after watching the forest or the stream.
The physical results presented a more complicated picture. The measures of the fight-or-flight response showed that stress levels decreased for everyone during the recovery phase, regardless of which environment video they watched. Unlike the original study, the nature videos did not lead to a faster reduction in this specific physical stress response.
However, the physical measures associated with the rest-and-digest response did show differences based on the video type. Participants who watched the forest video showed a much faster activation of their body’s calming system. This suggests that the forest setting specifically helped their bodies return to a physically relaxed state more quickly than the urban settings did.
“Our findings suggest that merely viewing nature can support recovery from acute stress, both psychologically and physiologically,” van den Berg told PsyPost. “One does not need to go into real nature to enjoy these effects. The effects were not dramatic or magical, but they were consistent across several measures and across research sites.”
“The findings also provide insight into the mechanisms behind the effects,” van den Berg noted. “In particular, the physiological effects seem to be driven by activation of the so-called ‘vagal brake’, a feedback signal from the stress system that tells the body that all is safe now.”
The researchers hope the public recognizes the accessibility of these benefits. “The broader message is that everyday contact with nature, even if it only involves looking out of the window or at a poster on a wall, may play a meaningful role in supporting mental and physical well-being,” van den Berg said.
Interestingly, the rapid relaxation response was most intense during the first three minutes of the nature videos. Van den Berg admitted she did not expect the physical effects to be so noticeable in a modern demographic. “To be honest, I was kind of surprised that part of the findings regarding the physiological effects of viewing nature were still present in the results,” van den Berg said.
“The sample consisted of nearly a thousand students who are used to viewing videos on social media such as TikTok and Instagram,” van den Berg added. “For this ‘Gen Z’ generation, I expected that it would be rather boring to view a video of a forest for 10 minutes, shot from a stationary point of view.” Despite these modern viewing habits, the physical effects persisted. “Indeed, the ‘all is safe now’ response to nature was strongest in the first 3 minutes of viewing the video,” van den Berg said.
The video of the natural stream did not produce this same calming physical effect. The rest-and-digest response of participants who watched the stream looked very similar to the response of those who watched the busy city streets. The researchers suspect this happened because the stream video featured the loud, fast-moving sound of rushing water, which the participants might have found disturbing rather than relaxing.
While the study provides evidence that viewing nature can aid in stress recovery, the researchers noted some caveats. “One important point is that this study does not imply that nature is a substitute for medical or psychological treatment,” van den Berg explained. “The effects observed were relatively modest short-term recovery effects following an experimental stressor.”
It is also important not to interpret the results as proof that all city environments are harmful. “It is also important not to oversimplify the findings into a strict ‘nature good, city bad’ narrative,” van den Berg added. “Urban environments can also provide a wealth of social, cultural, and psychological benefits, which are not captured by the videos used in our study.”
Future research could expand on these findings by testing a wider variety of natural and urban scenes. “Across the world many researchers are already following up on this seminal study,” van den Berg noted. “Much of this recent work has moved beyond exposure to simulated nature to more ecologically realistic and longitudinal approaches.”
“Preliminary findings provide insight into some of the characteristics of environments that matter most for recovery,” van den Berg explained. “For example, environmental characteristics such as biodiversity, water, soundscapes, perceived safety, familiarity, and cultural meaning may all play a role.”
Van den Berg plans to focus on the personal traits that change how individuals react to natural settings. “Personally, my research interests involve the role of individual factors that may make people more open to the beneficial effects of nature, such as gender, age, levels of acute and chronic stress, childhood nature experiences, and connectedness to nature,” van den Berg said.
Van den Berg shares much of her ongoing work online, including through her agency, Nature4People, and she also contributes to a large European project called Resonate focused on building human resilience through nature-based therapies.
The study, “Psychophysiological recovery from viewing nature and urban settings: A multisite replication,” was authored by A.E. Van den Berg, K. Dijkstra, D. Meuwese, F. Beute, P.M. Darcy, S. Dewitte, B. Gatersleben, C.J. Gidlow, C.M. Hägerhäll, J.A. Hipp, Y. Joye, Y.A.W. De Kort, S.C.M. Lechner, C. Neale, Å. Ode Sang, J. Roe, D.T. Scheepers, K. Smolders, H. Staats, R.S. Steensma, K.J. Wyles, and S.L. Koole.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #NatureVideoRecovery #PsychophysiologicalRecovery #NatureVsUrban #EnvironmentalPsychology #StressRecovery #VagalBrake #RestAndDigest #NatureExposure #MentalWellBeing #GenZScience
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DATE: May 12, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study finds sustainable living relies on stable personality traits, not temporary bursts of willpower
Recent research suggests that people who naturally possess higher levels of self-control tend to engage in more environmentally friendly habits over time. However, short-term changes in a person’s willpower do not directly lead to greener choices. These findings provide evidence that making sustainable choices easier, rather than relying on individual discipline, might be a more effective way to encourage eco-friendly habits. The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Scientists conducted this study to better understand the psychological traits that drive people to protect the environment. Environmental challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss require immediate action from everyday people. Actions that reduce a person’s negative impact on the planet are known as pro-environmental behaviors. Taking these actions often requires individuals to override their immediate conveniences for the sake of long-term ecological goals.
Pursuing these long-term goals requires a degree of self-regulation. Self-control is a specific and essential type of self-regulation. It involves managing internal reactions, delaying gratification, and resisting unwanted behavioral impulses. Previous research suggests that people with higher self-control tend to act more sustainably because they can keep long-term goals in mind.
“The idea first struck me during a very ordinary moment,” said Jingguang Li, a professor of psychology at Dali University in China. “I had just finished a bottle of water and there was no recycling bin in sight. I felt the urge to simply discard it, but instead I held onto it until I found a proper disposal point.”
“That minor internal struggle made me curious: do people with stronger self-control naturally gravitate toward greener choices in their daily lives?” Li said. His laboratory was already studying self-control, making the connection to everyday environmental behavior a natural extension of their work.
Most previous studies on this topic relied on cross-sectional designs. A cross-sectional study looks at a group of people at a single point in time, much like a photograph. This makes it difficult to know the exact direction of the relationship between variables.
“Previous studies found that more self-controlled people also report more sustainable habits, but almost all of that evidence came from cross-sectional surveys, single snapshots in time,” Li told PsyPost. “That leaves a crucial ambiguity: does the link simply reflect stable differences between people, or can a real change in self-control actually drive a change in behavior?”
This single-snapshot approach also leaves room for survey bias. “Because both self-control and pro-environmental behavior are socially valued traits, respondents filling out a one-shot questionnaire tend to paint a consistently positive picture of themselves,” Li said. “If they rate themselves as highly disciplined, they often feel compelled to rate themselves as environmentally conscious too.”
This bias can artificially inflate the correlation, making the two traits look more tightly linked than they truly are in daily life. “To get around both problems, we followed the same participants across multiple time points,” Li said. “Spacing out the measurements helps separate genuine directional effects from the bias of wanting to appear virtuous in a single sitting.”
Longitudinal studies track the exact same individuals across multiple points in time. This allows scientists to see how changes in one trait might predict changes in another trait over months or years. The researchers specifically chose to study adolescents and young adults. Late adolescence and early adulthood are periods when individuals are still developing their self-regulation capacities and forming their long-term environmental habits.
In the first study, the researchers recruited 221 high school students from a public school in China. The sample included about 66 percent female students with an average age of roughly 16 years old. The researchers assessed the students twice, with a full year passing between the first and second assessment waves. During each wave, the students filled out paper questionnaires in their classrooms while supervised by research assistants.
To measure self-control, the scientists used a 13-item questionnaire. Students rated statements about their ability to resist temptation and their tendency to think before acting. To measure pro-environmental behavior, the students rated how often they engaged in specific green activities over the past 12 months. These activities included recycling cans, saving energy at home, or buying products in reusable containers.
When analyzing the data, the scientists used a statistical technique called a cross-lagged panel model. This method looks at how a variable at the first time point predicts a different variable at the second time point. The findings of this first study showed that higher self-control at the start of the year predicted an increase in pro-environmental behaviors by the end of the year.
The researchers conducted a second study to expand on these findings using a larger sample and a longer timeframe. The second study included 1286 university students from a single university in China. This group was about 63 percent female with an average age of roughly 19 years old. Instead of just two check-ins, the researchers tracked these students across three distinct waves, with exactly one year between each wave.
Because the study spanned three full years, the scientists could use a more advanced statistical tool called a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model. This advanced statistical model separates the survey data into two different mathematical layers. The first layer looks at stable differences between different people. The second layer looks at temporary fluctuations within the exact same person.
Separating these layers helps scientists avoid confusing a stable personality trait with a passing state of mind. At the stable, trait-like level, the researchers found a positive association between the two factors. Individuals who consistently showed higher self-control compared to their peers also consistently reported more sustainable behaviors. This suggests that self-control is a stable personal trait strongly linked to living a greener lifestyle.
At the fluctuating, individual level, the data showed a different pattern. When a specific student experienced a natural drop or increase in their own typical self-control, it did not predict any subsequent change in their sustainable habits. This suggests that year-to-year shifts in a person’s willpower do not directly drive short-term changes in how they treat the environment.
“We were genuinely surprised by what we found inside the same person over time,” Li said. “At the outset, we had assumed that if someone’s self-control improved, their pro-environmental behavior would improve with it. But when we tracked the same individuals across waves, natural fluctuations in self-control simply did not translate into meaningful shifts in pro-environmental behavior.”
“The link is really anchored in stable, long-term trait differences,” Li continued. “It underscores that promoting sustainability requires more than urging people to ‘try harder’; we need to build habits and shape environments that make green choices effortless.”
The results provide evidence that having greener habits is part of an overarching lifestyle rather than a fleeting mood. “The main message is that the connection between self-control and green behavior is primarily a stable trait-level pattern: people who generally have stronger self-control also tend to live more sustainably across time,” Li said. “Yet when we tracked the same individuals over multiple waves, short-term ups and downs in their self-control did not reliably produce immediate changes in their environmental habits.”
“So it is not about heroic bursts of willpower in the moment; it is about who you are, on average, over the long haul,” Li added. “That distinction matters for everyday life. Sustainable living is really a marathon built from countless small decisions, turning off lights, carrying reusable bags, sorting waste, that add up over months and years.”
This highlights the need for structural changes that make sustainable choices easier for everyone. “If we rely solely on asking people to ‘try harder’ each time, we are fighting an uphill battle against human nature,” Li said. “A smarter approach is to reduce the self-control demand itself. Putting reminder stickers near light switches, placing recycling bins in convenient locations, or sharing monthly electricity or water-use feedback with family members can make the green choice the easy choice.”
Communities can also use nudging strategies to encourage green behaviors. Nudging involves designing choices in a way that guides people toward a desired action without restricting their freedom. Making recycling bins more accessible or automatically opting people into green energy plans reduces the amount of willpower needed to help the planet. “By designing environments and routines that minimize friction, we can promote sustainable actions without requiring constant mental effort,” Li said.
The researchers also note that self-control could be used as a helpful metric when assembling teams to tackle climate issues. People with naturally high self-control might be better equipped to handle the long-term demands of environmental advocacy. “One final thought: when selecting people for roles with significant environmental responsibilities, it makes sense to weigh self-control alongside their environmental attitudes and professional competence,” Li said.
The study does have a few limitations that should be noted. “We used self-report questionnaires and focused on Chinese high school and university students,” Li said. “That makes the findings suggestive rather than definitive. Future work should test whether the same pattern holds in other populations and with objective measures, such as actual behavioral tasks or real-world tracking, before drawing firmer conclusions.”
In addition, the one-year gap between the data collection waves might have missed smaller, short-term connections between willpower and sustainable choices. A full year is a long time, and a person’s self-control might fluctuate on a daily or weekly basis.
Going forward, the researchers plan to look at other psychological traits that support sustainable living. “Our next step is to understand why some people follow through on environmental intentions while others do not,” Li said. “We are especially interested in grit, passion and perseverance for long-term goals, because environmental protection is not a one-off act; it is a decades-long commitment.”
“The Paris Agreement, for instance, sets carbon-neutrality targets for the mid-twenty-first century, a timeline that feels distant to most people alive today,” Li noted. “That means safeguarding the planet demands sustained effort against slow, incremental payoffs, exactly the conditions where grit should matter.”
The scientists hope to figure out exactly how to foster this type of long-term dedication. “We want to test whether grit and related traits can help explain who stays the course in the face of such delayed rewards, and whether we can design interventions or educational programs that cultivate this kind of persistence for ecological goals,” Li said.
The study, “Longitudinal associations between self-control and pro-environmental behaviors,” was authored by Xingbo Wang, Yanru Liu, Yalun Zhang, Zhenglian Su, Liyun Hua, Yajun Zhao, and Jingguang Li.
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SelfControl #ProEnvironmentalBehavior #SustainableLiving #EnvironmentalPsychology #HabitFormation #GreenerChoices #Nudging #EcoFriendlyHabits #LongitudinalStudy #ClimateAction
-
DATE: May 12, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study finds sustainable living relies on stable personality traits, not temporary bursts of willpower
Recent research suggests that people who naturally possess higher levels of self-control tend to engage in more environmentally friendly habits over time. However, short-term changes in a person’s willpower do not directly lead to greener choices. These findings provide evidence that making sustainable choices easier, rather than relying on individual discipline, might be a more effective way to encourage eco-friendly habits. The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Scientists conducted this study to better understand the psychological traits that drive people to protect the environment. Environmental challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss require immediate action from everyday people. Actions that reduce a person’s negative impact on the planet are known as pro-environmental behaviors. Taking these actions often requires individuals to override their immediate conveniences for the sake of long-term ecological goals.
Pursuing these long-term goals requires a degree of self-regulation. Self-control is a specific and essential type of self-regulation. It involves managing internal reactions, delaying gratification, and resisting unwanted behavioral impulses. Previous research suggests that people with higher self-control tend to act more sustainably because they can keep long-term goals in mind.
“The idea first struck me during a very ordinary moment,” said Jingguang Li, a professor of psychology at Dali University in China. “I had just finished a bottle of water and there was no recycling bin in sight. I felt the urge to simply discard it, but instead I held onto it until I found a proper disposal point.”
“That minor internal struggle made me curious: do people with stronger self-control naturally gravitate toward greener choices in their daily lives?” Li said. His laboratory was already studying self-control, making the connection to everyday environmental behavior a natural extension of their work.
Most previous studies on this topic relied on cross-sectional designs. A cross-sectional study looks at a group of people at a single point in time, much like a photograph. This makes it difficult to know the exact direction of the relationship between variables.
“Previous studies found that more self-controlled people also report more sustainable habits, but almost all of that evidence came from cross-sectional surveys, single snapshots in time,” Li told PsyPost. “That leaves a crucial ambiguity: does the link simply reflect stable differences between people, or can a real change in self-control actually drive a change in behavior?”
This single-snapshot approach also leaves room for survey bias. “Because both self-control and pro-environmental behavior are socially valued traits, respondents filling out a one-shot questionnaire tend to paint a consistently positive picture of themselves,” Li said. “If they rate themselves as highly disciplined, they often feel compelled to rate themselves as environmentally conscious too.”
This bias can artificially inflate the correlation, making the two traits look more tightly linked than they truly are in daily life. “To get around both problems, we followed the same participants across multiple time points,” Li said. “Spacing out the measurements helps separate genuine directional effects from the bias of wanting to appear virtuous in a single sitting.”
Longitudinal studies track the exact same individuals across multiple points in time. This allows scientists to see how changes in one trait might predict changes in another trait over months or years. The researchers specifically chose to study adolescents and young adults. Late adolescence and early adulthood are periods when individuals are still developing their self-regulation capacities and forming their long-term environmental habits.
In the first study, the researchers recruited 221 high school students from a public school in China. The sample included about 66 percent female students with an average age of roughly 16 years old. The researchers assessed the students twice, with a full year passing between the first and second assessment waves. During each wave, the students filled out paper questionnaires in their classrooms while supervised by research assistants.
To measure self-control, the scientists used a 13-item questionnaire. Students rated statements about their ability to resist temptation and their tendency to think before acting. To measure pro-environmental behavior, the students rated how often they engaged in specific green activities over the past 12 months. These activities included recycling cans, saving energy at home, or buying products in reusable containers.
When analyzing the data, the scientists used a statistical technique called a cross-lagged panel model. This method looks at how a variable at the first time point predicts a different variable at the second time point. The findings of this first study showed that higher self-control at the start of the year predicted an increase in pro-environmental behaviors by the end of the year.
The researchers conducted a second study to expand on these findings using a larger sample and a longer timeframe. The second study included 1286 university students from a single university in China. This group was about 63 percent female with an average age of roughly 19 years old. Instead of just two check-ins, the researchers tracked these students across three distinct waves, with exactly one year between each wave.
Because the study spanned three full years, the scientists could use a more advanced statistical tool called a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model. This advanced statistical model separates the survey data into two different mathematical layers. The first layer looks at stable differences between different people. The second layer looks at temporary fluctuations within the exact same person.
Separating these layers helps scientists avoid confusing a stable personality trait with a passing state of mind. At the stable, trait-like level, the researchers found a positive association between the two factors. Individuals who consistently showed higher self-control compared to their peers also consistently reported more sustainable behaviors. This suggests that self-control is a stable personal trait strongly linked to living a greener lifestyle.
At the fluctuating, individual level, the data showed a different pattern. When a specific student experienced a natural drop or increase in their own typical self-control, it did not predict any subsequent change in their sustainable habits. This suggests that year-to-year shifts in a person’s willpower do not directly drive short-term changes in how they treat the environment.
“We were genuinely surprised by what we found inside the same person over time,” Li said. “At the outset, we had assumed that if someone’s self-control improved, their pro-environmental behavior would improve with it. But when we tracked the same individuals across waves, natural fluctuations in self-control simply did not translate into meaningful shifts in pro-environmental behavior.”
“The link is really anchored in stable, long-term trait differences,” Li continued. “It underscores that promoting sustainability requires more than urging people to ‘try harder’; we need to build habits and shape environments that make green choices effortless.”
The results provide evidence that having greener habits is part of an overarching lifestyle rather than a fleeting mood. “The main message is that the connection between self-control and green behavior is primarily a stable trait-level pattern: people who generally have stronger self-control also tend to live more sustainably across time,” Li said. “Yet when we tracked the same individuals over multiple waves, short-term ups and downs in their self-control did not reliably produce immediate changes in their environmental habits.”
“So it is not about heroic bursts of willpower in the moment; it is about who you are, on average, over the long haul,” Li added. “That distinction matters for everyday life. Sustainable living is really a marathon built from countless small decisions, turning off lights, carrying reusable bags, sorting waste, that add up over months and years.”
This highlights the need for structural changes that make sustainable choices easier for everyone. “If we rely solely on asking people to ‘try harder’ each time, we are fighting an uphill battle against human nature,” Li said. “A smarter approach is to reduce the self-control demand itself. Putting reminder stickers near light switches, placing recycling bins in convenient locations, or sharing monthly electricity or water-use feedback with family members can make the green choice the easy choice.”
Communities can also use nudging strategies to encourage green behaviors. Nudging involves designing choices in a way that guides people toward a desired action without restricting their freedom. Making recycling bins more accessible or automatically opting people into green energy plans reduces the amount of willpower needed to help the planet. “By designing environments and routines that minimize friction, we can promote sustainable actions without requiring constant mental effort,” Li said.
The researchers also note that self-control could be used as a helpful metric when assembling teams to tackle climate issues. People with naturally high self-control might be better equipped to handle the long-term demands of environmental advocacy. “One final thought: when selecting people for roles with significant environmental responsibilities, it makes sense to weigh self-control alongside their environmental attitudes and professional competence,” Li said.
The study does have a few limitations that should be noted. “We used self-report questionnaires and focused on Chinese high school and university students,” Li said. “That makes the findings suggestive rather than definitive. Future work should test whether the same pattern holds in other populations and with objective measures, such as actual behavioral tasks or real-world tracking, before drawing firmer conclusions.”
In addition, the one-year gap between the data collection waves might have missed smaller, short-term connections between willpower and sustainable choices. A full year is a long time, and a person’s self-control might fluctuate on a daily or weekly basis.
Going forward, the researchers plan to look at other psychological traits that support sustainable living. “Our next step is to understand why some people follow through on environmental intentions while others do not,” Li said. “We are especially interested in grit, passion and perseverance for long-term goals, because environmental protection is not a one-off act; it is a decades-long commitment.”
“The Paris Agreement, for instance, sets carbon-neutrality targets for the mid-twenty-first century, a timeline that feels distant to most people alive today,” Li noted. “That means safeguarding the planet demands sustained effort against slow, incremental payoffs, exactly the conditions where grit should matter.”
The scientists hope to figure out exactly how to foster this type of long-term dedication. “We want to test whether grit and related traits can help explain who stays the course in the face of such delayed rewards, and whether we can design interventions or educational programs that cultivate this kind of persistence for ecological goals,” Li said.
The study, “Longitudinal associations between self-control and pro-environmental behaviors,” was authored by Xingbo Wang, Yanru Liu, Yalun Zhang, Zhenglian Su, Liyun Hua, Yajun Zhao, and Jingguang Li.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SelfControl #ProEnvironmentalBehavior #SustainableLiving #EnvironmentalPsychology #HabitFormation #GreenerChoices #Nudging #EcoFriendlyHabits #LongitudinalStudy #ClimateAction
-
DATE: May 12, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study finds sustainable living relies on stable personality traits, not temporary bursts of willpower
Recent research suggests that people who naturally possess higher levels of self-control tend to engage in more environmentally friendly habits over time. However, short-term changes in a person’s willpower do not directly lead to greener choices. These findings provide evidence that making sustainable choices easier, rather than relying on individual discipline, might be a more effective way to encourage eco-friendly habits. The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Scientists conducted this study to better understand the psychological traits that drive people to protect the environment. Environmental challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss require immediate action from everyday people. Actions that reduce a person’s negative impact on the planet are known as pro-environmental behaviors. Taking these actions often requires individuals to override their immediate conveniences for the sake of long-term ecological goals.
Pursuing these long-term goals requires a degree of self-regulation. Self-control is a specific and essential type of self-regulation. It involves managing internal reactions, delaying gratification, and resisting unwanted behavioral impulses. Previous research suggests that people with higher self-control tend to act more sustainably because they can keep long-term goals in mind.
“The idea first struck me during a very ordinary moment,” said Jingguang Li, a professor of psychology at Dali University in China. “I had just finished a bottle of water and there was no recycling bin in sight. I felt the urge to simply discard it, but instead I held onto it until I found a proper disposal point.”
“That minor internal struggle made me curious: do people with stronger self-control naturally gravitate toward greener choices in their daily lives?” Li said. His laboratory was already studying self-control, making the connection to everyday environmental behavior a natural extension of their work.
Most previous studies on this topic relied on cross-sectional designs. A cross-sectional study looks at a group of people at a single point in time, much like a photograph. This makes it difficult to know the exact direction of the relationship between variables.
“Previous studies found that more self-controlled people also report more sustainable habits, but almost all of that evidence came from cross-sectional surveys, single snapshots in time,” Li told PsyPost. “That leaves a crucial ambiguity: does the link simply reflect stable differences between people, or can a real change in self-control actually drive a change in behavior?”
This single-snapshot approach also leaves room for survey bias. “Because both self-control and pro-environmental behavior are socially valued traits, respondents filling out a one-shot questionnaire tend to paint a consistently positive picture of themselves,” Li said. “If they rate themselves as highly disciplined, they often feel compelled to rate themselves as environmentally conscious too.”
This bias can artificially inflate the correlation, making the two traits look more tightly linked than they truly are in daily life. “To get around both problems, we followed the same participants across multiple time points,” Li said. “Spacing out the measurements helps separate genuine directional effects from the bias of wanting to appear virtuous in a single sitting.”
Longitudinal studies track the exact same individuals across multiple points in time. This allows scientists to see how changes in one trait might predict changes in another trait over months or years. The researchers specifically chose to study adolescents and young adults. Late adolescence and early adulthood are periods when individuals are still developing their self-regulation capacities and forming their long-term environmental habits.
In the first study, the researchers recruited 221 high school students from a public school in China. The sample included about 66 percent female students with an average age of roughly 16 years old. The researchers assessed the students twice, with a full year passing between the first and second assessment waves. During each wave, the students filled out paper questionnaires in their classrooms while supervised by research assistants.
To measure self-control, the scientists used a 13-item questionnaire. Students rated statements about their ability to resist temptation and their tendency to think before acting. To measure pro-environmental behavior, the students rated how often they engaged in specific green activities over the past 12 months. These activities included recycling cans, saving energy at home, or buying products in reusable containers.
When analyzing the data, the scientists used a statistical technique called a cross-lagged panel model. This method looks at how a variable at the first time point predicts a different variable at the second time point. The findings of this first study showed that higher self-control at the start of the year predicted an increase in pro-environmental behaviors by the end of the year.
The researchers conducted a second study to expand on these findings using a larger sample and a longer timeframe. The second study included 1286 university students from a single university in China. This group was about 63 percent female with an average age of roughly 19 years old. Instead of just two check-ins, the researchers tracked these students across three distinct waves, with exactly one year between each wave.
Because the study spanned three full years, the scientists could use a more advanced statistical tool called a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model. This advanced statistical model separates the survey data into two different mathematical layers. The first layer looks at stable differences between different people. The second layer looks at temporary fluctuations within the exact same person.
Separating these layers helps scientists avoid confusing a stable personality trait with a passing state of mind. At the stable, trait-like level, the researchers found a positive association between the two factors. Individuals who consistently showed higher self-control compared to their peers also consistently reported more sustainable behaviors. This suggests that self-control is a stable personal trait strongly linked to living a greener lifestyle.
At the fluctuating, individual level, the data showed a different pattern. When a specific student experienced a natural drop or increase in their own typical self-control, it did not predict any subsequent change in their sustainable habits. This suggests that year-to-year shifts in a person’s willpower do not directly drive short-term changes in how they treat the environment.
“We were genuinely surprised by what we found inside the same person over time,” Li said. “At the outset, we had assumed that if someone’s self-control improved, their pro-environmental behavior would improve with it. But when we tracked the same individuals across waves, natural fluctuations in self-control simply did not translate into meaningful shifts in pro-environmental behavior.”
“The link is really anchored in stable, long-term trait differences,” Li continued. “It underscores that promoting sustainability requires more than urging people to ‘try harder’; we need to build habits and shape environments that make green choices effortless.”
The results provide evidence that having greener habits is part of an overarching lifestyle rather than a fleeting mood. “The main message is that the connection between self-control and green behavior is primarily a stable trait-level pattern: people who generally have stronger self-control also tend to live more sustainably across time,” Li said. “Yet when we tracked the same individuals over multiple waves, short-term ups and downs in their self-control did not reliably produce immediate changes in their environmental habits.”
“So it is not about heroic bursts of willpower in the moment; it is about who you are, on average, over the long haul,” Li added. “That distinction matters for everyday life. Sustainable living is really a marathon built from countless small decisions, turning off lights, carrying reusable bags, sorting waste, that add up over months and years.”
This highlights the need for structural changes that make sustainable choices easier for everyone. “If we rely solely on asking people to ‘try harder’ each time, we are fighting an uphill battle against human nature,” Li said. “A smarter approach is to reduce the self-control demand itself. Putting reminder stickers near light switches, placing recycling bins in convenient locations, or sharing monthly electricity or water-use feedback with family members can make the green choice the easy choice.”
Communities can also use nudging strategies to encourage green behaviors. Nudging involves designing choices in a way that guides people toward a desired action without restricting their freedom. Making recycling bins more accessible or automatically opting people into green energy plans reduces the amount of willpower needed to help the planet. “By designing environments and routines that minimize friction, we can promote sustainable actions without requiring constant mental effort,” Li said.
The researchers also note that self-control could be used as a helpful metric when assembling teams to tackle climate issues. People with naturally high self-control might be better equipped to handle the long-term demands of environmental advocacy. “One final thought: when selecting people for roles with significant environmental responsibilities, it makes sense to weigh self-control alongside their environmental attitudes and professional competence,” Li said.
The study does have a few limitations that should be noted. “We used self-report questionnaires and focused on Chinese high school and university students,” Li said. “That makes the findings suggestive rather than definitive. Future work should test whether the same pattern holds in other populations and with objective measures, such as actual behavioral tasks or real-world tracking, before drawing firmer conclusions.”
In addition, the one-year gap between the data collection waves might have missed smaller, short-term connections between willpower and sustainable choices. A full year is a long time, and a person’s self-control might fluctuate on a daily or weekly basis.
Going forward, the researchers plan to look at other psychological traits that support sustainable living. “Our next step is to understand why some people follow through on environmental intentions while others do not,” Li said. “We are especially interested in grit, passion and perseverance for long-term goals, because environmental protection is not a one-off act; it is a decades-long commitment.”
“The Paris Agreement, for instance, sets carbon-neutrality targets for the mid-twenty-first century, a timeline that feels distant to most people alive today,” Li noted. “That means safeguarding the planet demands sustained effort against slow, incremental payoffs, exactly the conditions where grit should matter.”
The scientists hope to figure out exactly how to foster this type of long-term dedication. “We want to test whether grit and related traits can help explain who stays the course in the face of such delayed rewards, and whether we can design interventions or educational programs that cultivate this kind of persistence for ecological goals,” Li said.
The study, “Longitudinal associations between self-control and pro-environmental behaviors,” was authored by Xingbo Wang, Yanru Liu, Yalun Zhang, Zhenglian Su, Liyun Hua, Yajun Zhao, and Jingguang Li.
-------------------------------------------------
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SelfControl #ProEnvironmentalBehavior #SustainableLiving #EnvironmentalPsychology #HabitFormation #GreenerChoices #Nudging #EcoFriendlyHabits #LongitudinalStudy #ClimateAction
-
Tatiana Shevel recently joined the Environmental Psychology Group as a #PhD student. In her research, she aims to bridge #sustainability science and #environmentalpsychology through the #inner_transformation approach. 🌱
-
Kuni Saffana recently joined the team as a PhD student, having received funding by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Agency (LPDP) Scholarship.
Her research will aim to advance the use of #psychometrics in #environmentalpsychology in order to promote conscious and responsible consumption
-
Your environment isn't neutral—it's actively shaping your nervous system, focus, and emotional capacity. And the science behind it is fascinating.
New episode out now!
#PsyberSpace #EnvironmentalPsychology #Neuroaesthetics #Neurodivergent #MentalHealth #BiophilicDesign https://bit.ly/46BpT1H -
🌱Project Spotlight: RESONATE
“Building individual and community RESilience thrOugh NATurE-based therapies” is a Horizon Europe project that brings together a consortium of world leaders in #nature_based_therapy (NbT) research, practice, policy, and innovation. 🌿
🏛️ Lead: Mathew White at the University of Vienna
⌛ Duration: 2023–2027
🌐 For more information visit: https://resonate-horizon.eu/#environmentalpsychology #nature #health #resilience #research
-
Maja Grünzner is a psychologist, systemic & family therapist (in training) and has been a member of the #EnvironmentalPsychology Lab for many years. She has recently completed her PhD that combines her professional and academic interests in sustainability and human behaviour:
♻️ Small Choices, Big Impact: Tackling Microplastics through Behavioural Science
🌐 For a list of all her publications, visit: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=3nq6tVMAAAAJ
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📸Valeria Vitale shared her research at the International Conference on #EnvironmentalPsychology (ICEP 2025) in Vilnius, Lithuania.
📊She introduced “nature selection” as a new #emotionregulation strategy and validated a scale through studies conducted both in English and Italian.
-
📸 Valentina Hampejs presented her research at the International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP) in Vilnius, Lithuania.
📊 Using insights from 18,000 nature visits, she explored how connecting with nature can boost your physical, mental and social #wellbeing.
-
📸 Nina Vaupotič presenting her new findings at the International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP 2025).
📊 A new analysis in relation to #ProjectGOLIAT shows who believes in the health effects of #5G technologies across 11 countries.
-
New paper by Nina Vaupotič on the perception of #5G technology and its perceived effects on human health and society between experts, non-experts, and self-identified electrosensitive individuals.
Click to read the full open-access paper:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13669877.2025.2512074 -
The International Conference on Environmental Psychology (#ICEP) is taking place in #Vilnius from the 15th to the 18th of June.
Our research group will be presenting results on carbon inequality perception and on motivation to use more sustainable means of transport.
#CarbonInequality
#SustainableTransport
#EnvironmentalPsychology -
The International Conference on Environmental Psychology (#ICEP) is taking place in #Vilnius from the 15th to the 18th of June.
Our research group will be presenting results on carbon inequality perception and on motivation to use more sustainable means of transport.
#CarbonInequality
#SustainableTransport
#EnvironmentalPsychology -
The Dancing Brain: Exploring Enactive & Eco-Social Psychiatry for a Holistic Mind-Environment Connection
#EnactivePsychiatry #EcoSocialMind #ActiveInference #Neuroscience #MentalHealth #HolisticHealing #SensoryIntegration #PredictiveProcessing #DigitalPsychiatry #CulturalContext #EnvironmentalPsychology #BioSocioCultural #MentalWellness #SelfCreatingSystems #InnovativeTherapies
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The Dancing Brain: Exploring Enactive & Eco-Social Psychiatry for a Holistic Mind-Environment Connection
#EnactivePsychiatry #EcoSocialMind #ActiveInference #Neuroscience #MentalHealth #HolisticHealing #SensoryIntegration #PredictiveProcessing #DigitalPsychiatry #CulturalContext #EnvironmentalPsychology #BioSocioCultural #MentalWellness #SelfCreatingSystems #InnovativeTherapies
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The Dancing Brain: Exploring Enactive & Eco-Social Psychiatry for a Holistic Mind-Environment Connection
#EnactivePsychiatry #EcoSocialMind #ActiveInference #Neuroscience #MentalHealth #HolisticHealing #SensoryIntegration #PredictiveProcessing #DigitalPsychiatry #CulturalContext #EnvironmentalPsychology #BioSocioCultural #MentalWellness #SelfCreatingSystems #InnovativeTherapies
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The Dancing Brain: Exploring Enactive & Eco-Social Psychiatry for a Holistic Mind-Environment Connection
#EnactivePsychiatry #EcoSocialMind #ActiveInference #Neuroscience #MentalHealth #HolisticHealing #SensoryIntegration #PredictiveProcessing #DigitalPsychiatry #CulturalContext #EnvironmentalPsychology #BioSocioCultural #MentalWellness #SelfCreatingSystems #InnovativeTherapies
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The Dancing Brain: Exploring Enactive & Eco-Social Psychiatry for a Holistic Mind-Environment Connection
#EnactivePsychiatry #EcoSocialMind #ActiveInference #Neuroscience #MentalHealth #HolisticHealing #SensoryIntegration #PredictiveProcessing #DigitalPsychiatry #CulturalContext #EnvironmentalPsychology #BioSocioCultural #MentalWellness #SelfCreatingSystems #InnovativeTherapies
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How the Buildings We Shape, Shape Us featuring Sarah Williams Goldhagen
#unSILOed #Culture #Psychology #EnvironmentalPsychology #EnvironmentJustice #Design #Architecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw02eQEw6dU -
"Noctcaelador has been found to relate to feelings of connectedness with nature and attitudes favoring protecting dark skies
from light pollution. Given that #connectedness with nature relates to both well-being and behaviors which protect the planet, understanding the foundations of #noctcaelador could be an important area of study regarding reactions to, and attitudes towards, natural environments."#DarkSkies #LightPollution #Psychology #EnvironmentalPsychology #Night #Nighttime #NightSky
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🎧What is Environmental Psychology? w/ Linda Steg
University of Groningen
#Interview #Materialism #Science #Psychology #EnvironmentalPsychology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgOGtE5W-Zk&t=78s -
@amin
I don't. I mean, there *is* area on the desk in between me and the laptop that isn't holding anything visibly, but the open space is very important to what you might call #EnvPsych — #EnvironmentalPsychology.
Clutter drives me mad. As crazy or stupid as it sounds, I *need* my desk to look like an Apple store, as much as is reasonably possible. -
And more on that wonderful word "motonormativity" (And I have heard people in public meetings asserting we cannot eliminate pedestrian fatalities,so we should just "accept the risk" -so it's not just in the UK this applies
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Inspiring & fun 2 days lie behind us. 🧠🌱💡
We had a joint #EnvironmentalPsychology meeting with the
@scanunit at
@univienna & the Consumer Decision and Sustainable Behavior Lab coming all the way from Geneva. 🚆 -
Last Saturday, my colleague Jana Köhler and I had the opportunity to present the topic of #EnvironmentalPsychology in relation to the climate crisis at the KISS THE GLOBE-Event in Vienna.
My favourite quote from Jana: ”We should focus on the fact that we need [...] a majority that does *something* instead of few people that do *everything*.”
The take-aways I hope we could make the audience remember: (1/4)
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Excited to share this #preprint of a #SystematicReview of Relationship Between #ClimateAnxiety and Environmentally Relevant Behaviours
The review was led by Alice Roberts as part of her #PhD/#DClinPsy
#EnvironmentalPsychology #ClimateDistress #ClimateChange -
What an inspiring first full day at #DGPs2024!✨🤯
We are delighted to see a lot of #environmentalpsychology represented, from this morning's keynote by @SabinePahl to a panel discussion on psychology and the climate crisis, and of course posters and research talks.🧠🌿
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Hello, World! My name is Addi Wala and I will be joining the @envpsyvienna research group as a research assistant. I love blue spaces, be they real or artistic in nature (pun intended) and bridging the gap between urban development and psychology. #environmentalpsychology #research #bluespaces #urbandevelopment
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Interested in doing a #phd in '#EnvironmentalPsychology? Why not apply for a fully funded Wales Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) studentship starting in October 2024 #FindAPhd
(Application deadline 12 January 2024)More info here 👇
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The website for the #IAPS2024Conference in Barcelona, Spain is now LIVE!!! #EnvironmentalPsychology #EnvPsy #HumanEnvironmentInteractions
Important dates:
01 November 2023: Abstract submission opens
15 December 2023: Abstract submission closes -
Interested in doing a PhD in #EnvironmentalPsychology?
Why not apply for a fully funded Wales Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) (ESRC DTP) studentship starting in October 2024 at the School of Psychology, Cardiff University #FindAPhd
More info here 👇
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JOB KLAXON:3-4 Lecturers (T&R) at the School of Psychology, Cardiff University - including #EnvironmentalPsychology #EnvPsy (application deadline 7 Sept 2023) More info here: https://krb-sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?partnerid=30011&siteid=5460&PageType=JobDetails&jobid=2091259
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So excited for the start of #ICEP2023!
Don't miss out on the Opening Ceremony in the Aarhus University Aula. Who's joining us?#environmentalpsychology #appliedpsychology #science #research #conference
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We are on our way to #ICEP2023 🚄🌍 and can't wait to meet everyone.
See you in Aarhus!#environmentalpsychology #appliedpsychology #science #research #conference
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We -- the environmental psychology research group @univienna -- are officially „tooting“ on #mastodon. Let’s connect in the #fediverse
#environmentalpsychology #research #plasticpollution #microplastics #PFAS #climatechange #anthropomorphism #biodiversity #conservation #restorative #nature
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It's great to see UN Climate Change addressing the impact of climate change on mental health. The indirect effects are often overlooked.
Including more green infrastructure in our urban environments provides co-benefits for mental and physical health and environmental health.
See there LInkedIn post here https://www.linkedin.com/posts/unclimatechange_mentalhealth-climatechange-mentalhealthawareness-activity-7051841630781202432-X3Zl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
The @phaa has a policy position statement on Mental health and climate change. You can read it here https://www.phaa.net.au/documents/item/4637
We're updating this statement for release later this year.
#PlanetaryHealth #ClimateChange #MentalHealth #Wellbeing #EcoAnxiety #Resilience #CoBenefits #UrbanDesign #GreenInfrastructure #GreenSpace #EnvironmentalHealth #EnvironmentalPsychology #PublicHealth
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What is neurourbanism?
Come to UTS to hear visiting scholars Professor Klaus Gramann and Dr Robin Mazumder present their research.
"Exploring and designing urban density – neurourbanism as a novel approach in global mental health"
Register for the free event on 18 April here... https://events.humanitix.com/exploring-and-designing-urban-density-neurourbanism-as-a-novel-approach-in-global-mental-health?_ga=2.179976544.551955429.1681258523-1456636928.1678142922
#MentalHealth
#EnvironmentalPsychology #UrbanDesign
#UrbanEnvironments #HealthyEnvironments #PublicHealth @Neuropsyc @psychology -
The School of Psychology at Cardiff university is looking for a #Lecturer/#SeniorLecturer in any area off psychology, including #EnvironmentalPsychology. Please get in touch if you have any questions. Closing date: Friday, 21 April 2023 #EnvPsy
More info here:
https://krb-sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?partnerid=30011&siteid=5460&PageType=JobDetails&jobid=2065286 -
Nice #phd vacancy on #EnvironmentalPsychology/ #behavioralscience at the #UEC #urbaneconomics group in Wageningen #WUR Highly recommended! https://www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/phd-position-behavioral-aspects-of-improving-plastic-waste-recycling.htm
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PhD opportunity on Public understanding and consumption of #biobased and #biodegradable #plastics at the School of Psychology, Cardiff University. Please share and get in touch! #phd #EnvPsy #environmentalpsychology
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Hi there, here a short intro:
I am a behavioral scientist interested in #healthpsychology, #socialpsychology and #gerontology working at the MSB Medical School Berlin.
Currently, we are working on
- projects to increase #physicalactivity 🤸
- on understanding how the provision of #socialsupport can be beneficial or even healthy for support providers 🤗
- as well as #ViewsOnAging in the German population 👀
I am more and more interested in #environmentalpsychology, too. -
Hi there, here a short intro:
I am a behavioral scientist interested in #healthpsychology, #socialpsychology and #gerontology working at the MSB Medical School Berlin.
Currently, we are working on
- projects to increase #physicalactivity 🤸
- on understanding how the provision of #socialsupport can be beneficial or even healthy for support providers 🤗
- as well as #ViewsOnAging in the German population 👀
I am more and more interested in #environmentalpsychology, too. -
Thought I should put myself out there and do a detailed #introduction.
Hi 👋 I'm a #PublicHealth #researcher and #educator working at the University of Technology Sydney in the Institute for Sustainable Futures and the Health Research Institute. I have an eclectic background in #GraphicDesign, #HerbalMedicine, #HealthScience and #Psychology (#PhD).
Previously my main area of research was #HealthCare decision-making and #health services research mostly in #ComplementaryMedicine—I still do some of this. Now my main area of research is #PlanetaryHealth focused. I use #SystemsThinking to understand the impact of #EnvironmentalChange (inc #ClimateChange #pollution #contamination) on #health and #wellbeing and use #transdisiplinary methods to change policy and practice. I also teach in these areas.
I've a special interest in #MentalHealth and #wellbeing, #EnvironmentalPsychology and #KnowledgeTranslation.
I'm also passionate about supporting #PhD #HDR students. I have a side gig called Thrive Academia I started with a good friend when we thought everything was falling apart in academia. We run #AcademicWriting retreats and workshops (see link in profile).
I have #ADHD and am keen to connect with other #academics who share this experience as it can be hard and lonely.
Outside work I love #music 🎸(esp on #vinyl and live), #birds 🦆, #drawing, #nature 🌸, #gardening ☘️ and #vintage design (esp 1920s to 1960s).
Looking forward to this adventure on #mastodon and making connections.