Frontiers in Psychology (Jul 2015)

Connectedness to Nature and to Humanity: Their Association and Personality Correlates

  • Kibeom eLee,
  • Michael C Ashton,
  • Julie eChoi,
  • Kayla eZachariassen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01003
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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People differ in the extent to which they identify with humans beyond their ingroup and with non-human living things. We refer to the former as the Connectedness to Humanity (CH) and to the latter as the Connectedness to Nature (CN). In a sample of 324 undergraduate students, CH and CN were operationalized using the Identification with All Humanity Scale (McFarland, Webb, & Brown, 2012) and the Connectedness to Nature Scale (Mayer & Frantz, 2004), respectively. These variables correlated moderately with each other (r = .44) and shared Openness to Experience and Honesty-Humility as their primary personality correlates. CN was found to play an important role in mediating the relationships between the two personality variables and some specific pro-environmental/pro-animal attitudes and ecological behaviors.

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