There is no “I” in nature: The influence of self-awareness on connectedness to nature

Environmentalists and ecopsychologists claim that focusing on “I” leads people to feel less connected to nature. The present study empirically tests this argument by manipulating participants' objective self-awareness (OSA). Heightened OSA has been shown to increase participants' self-focus, but also increase the impact of individuals' attitudes and personality characteristics. Integrating these effects, we predicted that individuals lacking pro-environmental internal characteristics (nonenvironmentalists and those high on exploitativeness) would show decreased connection to nature in response to heightened OSA, while individuals with pro-environmental internal characteristics would not. For these individuals, their pro-environmental internal characteristics should counteract the effects of OSA on connection to nature. Two studies provide empirical support for this hypothesis. Implications of this research for pro-environmental actions are discussed.