The importance of connection to nature in assessing environmental education programs

• We review research on connection to nature and environmentally responsible behavior.
• At least nine validated measures exist to assess connectedness to nature.
• Connectedness to nature is a reliable predictor of self-reported behavior.
• Three studies show that the connectedness to nature scale predicts electricity use.

Environmental education imparts knowledge and creates experience to change beliefs, attitudes – and most importantly – behavior. What are the deep motivators of human behavior? Theory and research suggest that feeling connected to someone or something motivates protective and self-sacrificing behavior. This paper reviews the large body of research demonstrating that connectedness to nature is an important predictor of environmentally responsible behavior. We review past research on self-reported behavior, then summarize new research from our lab that demonstrates a link between connectedness to nature and actual conservation behavior (electricity use). We conclude that promoting connectedness to nature should be a goal for environmental education programs, and should therefore be an important part of any assessment.