Holism and pro-environmental commitment : an examination on the mediating roles of affective and cognitive determinants

• Main Authors: Ito, Kenichi, Li, Liman Man Wai
• Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology; Holistic Thinking; Analytic Thinking
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138215; https://doi.org/10.21979/N9/6BOB87
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

To advance the understanding of great individual variations in pro-environmental tendencies, the current research examined the role of holistic versus analytic thinking, which is non-specific to environmental issues, and explored the underlying mechanisms via both affective and cognitive determinants, i.e., affective affinity toward nature and awareness of risk to nature, respectively. Study 1 found that stronger holistic (vs. analytic) thinking predicted greater pro-environmental commitment, and this relation was explained by greater affective affinity toward nature and greater awareness of risk to nature. Recruiting a larger community sample with diverse demographic characteristics, Study 2 replicated the patterns of Study 1. Study 3 manipulated thinking style and found some partial evidence for the relationships among the examined variables. This research highlights the importance of domain-general individual characteristics in environmental research.