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The global market for forest-risk commodities has become the major driver of deforestation across the tropics, threatening the survival of many forest-dependent primates. To combat deforestation and extinction, conservation interventions should include both supply- and demand-side measures, targeting the commodity producers and consumers respectively. We evaluated the impact of an open-air exhibition, 'The Gibbon’s Life in the Treetops', which was held on a prime shopping street in Hong Kong. The aim of the exhibition was to raise public awareness of the plight of gibbons and encourage consumers to switch to palm-oil-free and forest-friendly certified products. Visitors who were about to enter the exhibition (pre-visit group) and visitors who had just left the exhibition (post-visit group) were intercepted and invited to complete a questionnaire regarding their knowledge of gibbons, knowledge of forest-friendly purchasing, awareness of the impacts of human behavior on forests, efficacy belief (an individual’s confidence in his/her ability to contribute to forest conservation), moral obligation (an individual’s sense of moral responsibility to protect forests) and their behavioral intention to purchase forest-friendly products (N = 105). The results revealed that their knowledge of gibbons and of forest-friendly purchasing were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the post-visit group than in the pre-visit group, while the remaining variables did not show any significant difference. Specifically, we did not observe a distinctly higher intention to buy palm-oil-free and forest-friendly certified products in the coming months among participants in the post-visit group. Our findings further contribute to the literature suggesting knowledge enhancement alone does not necessarily prompt behavior change. Conservation scientists and educators should also consider psychological and contextual factors when designing behavior-change interventions. We suggest that the exhibition

Research on conspiracy theories and climate change is emerging. Existing studies came from a range of scholarly disciplines, asked different research questions, and used various research methods. Given the heterogeneity in these studies, there is a pressing need to synthesize the current state of knowledge on the topic and identify the priority directions for further research. We address this need with a preregistered systematic review. Our review covered 43 studies from 38 articles. We organized our review of these studies by the following methodological categories: survey studies, experiments, interview studies, media studies, ethnographic studies, and mathematically modelling. For each category, we offered a summary of evidence, highlighted the key insights, and identify knowledge gaps. We concluded with a proposed integrative framework for research on the topic. As conspiracy theories can be an obstacle to climate change mitigation and adaptation, the present review would provide invaluable insights for not only scientists but also climate-related practitioners (e.g., environmental organizations, educators) and decision makers (e.g., policymakers) to consider. © 2023 The Authors

Climate change anxiety is becoming recognized as a way in which climate change affects mental health. It is not only observed in populations that suffer the most from the direct impacts of climate change but also can be trigged by the mere thought and perception about such impacts. Although climate change is a global problem that is a cause for concern around the world, research on climate anxiety has only recently utilized validated measures, and it has mostly been conducted in Western and developed societies. In response to this research gap, we conducted a cross-national study of climate change anxiety using the Climate Change Anxiety Scale, with participants (N = 4000) from four of the top emitters in the world (China, India, Japan, and the U.S.) which vary in their climate change vulnerabilities and resilience. We demonstrated that the widely adopted measure of climate change anxiety exhibited configural and metric invariance in the four countries. Climate change anxiety was apparently higher in the Chinese and Indian populations than in the Japanese and American populations. There were some demographic correlates of climate change anxiety, but the pattern was not always consistent across the countries. Climate change anxiety was positively associated with engagement in climate action in all four countries, but apparently more so for sustainable diet and climate activism than resource conservation and support for climate policy. The effect was driven more robustly by the cognitive-emotional impairment dimension than the functional impairment dimension of climate change anxiety. Taken together, these observations suggest that the Climate Change Anxiety Scale can be used to assess climate change anxiety across countries, and that there are both similarities and variations across different societal contexts with respect to the experience of climate change anxiety. Future research must take these complexities into consideration.

Global issues such as environmental problems and climate change, require collective efforts. Global identity has been linked to the promotion of pro-environmental behavior by international and environmental organizations. In environment-related research, this all-inclusive social identity has been consistently related to pro-environmental behavior and environmental concern, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This current systematic review seeks to examine past studies across disciplines that have reported findings on the relationship between global identity and the constructs of pro-environmental behavior and environmental concern and to synthesize findings on the potential pathways behind this relationship. Thirty articles were identified through a systematic search. We found that most studies reported a positive correlation, and the effect of global identity on pro-environmental behavior and environmental concern was stable across studies. Only nine of the studies empirically examined the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Three major themes of these underlying mechanisms emerged: obligation, responsibility, and relevance. These mediators highlight the role of global identity in pro-environmental behavior and environmental concern via how individuals relate to other humans and how they appraise environmental problems. We also observed a heterogeneity in measurements of global identity and environment-related outcomes. As a topic of interest in multiple disciplines, a variety of global identity labels have been adopted, such as global identity, global social identity, humanity identity, Identification With All Humanity, global/world citizen, connectedness to humanity, global belonging, and psychological sense of global community. Self-report measures of behavior were common, but observations of actual behavior were rare. Knowledge gaps are identified, and future directions are suggested.

Transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources is indispensable to the achievement of carbon-neutral targets in climate change mitigation. Such transition not only requires policy changes and technological advances but also hinges on individuals' actions and support. Accordingly, there is a pressing need to engage the public in renewable energy transition. In this pre-registered study, we examined the effects of perceived descriptive norms and injunctive norms on people's support for renewable energy transition among 31 European countries. Importantly, we compared how the strength of such effects varied between the countries with different cultures and levels of environmental risks. With data from the ECHOES international survey, we found that the two perceived social norms were positively related to support for renewable energy transition, and these positive associations were stronger among countries with higher levels of individualism and cultural tightness, or lower levels of air pollution and vulnerability to climate change risks. Overall, although these observations are contrary to our hypotheses developed based on the cross-cultural psychology literature, they speak of the imperative for researchers and practitioners to acknowledge that the behavioral influence of social norms in the energy domain is sensitive to contextual factors. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

The impacts of climate change on human cultures have received increasing attention in recent years. However, the extent to which people are aware of these impacts, whether such awareness motivates climate action, and what kinds of people show stronger awareness are rarely understood. The present investigation provides the very first set of answers to these questions. In two studies (with a student sample with N = 199 from Singapore and a demographically representative sample with N = 625 from the USA), we observed a generally high level of awareness among our participants. Most importantly, perceived cultural impacts of climate change robustly predicted intentions to engage in climate change mitigation behavior and climate activism, as well as support for climate policy. We also found expected associations between perceived cultural impacts and some psychological and demographic variables (e.g., cosmopolitan orientation, moral inclusion, political orientation). These findings not only add a cultural dimension to the research on public understanding of climate change but also reveal a viable application of cultural frames as an effective climate communication strategy.

Feeling grateful to nature for its bountiful benefits to humans and wanting to give thanks to nature is a familiar theme in personal stories and cultural rituals, but this emotional experience has rarely been understood scientifically. The present research fills this gap by presenting a theory of gratitude to nature. Findings from four correlational studies and two experiments show some support for its propositions. Gratitude to nature can be conceptualized as a form of benefit-triggered gratitude. The distinction between trait and state gratitude to nature was found to be valid, and both forms of gratitude can be reliably measured. Trait gratitude to nature was associated with some constructs relevant to the human-nature relationship (e.g., experience with nature, connectedness to nature, anthropomorphism of nature) and interpersonal gratitude. Also, trait gratitude to nature was associated with not only intention to perform pro-environmental behavior but also actual donation to environmental causes. Experimental manipulation of gratitude to nature had some behavioral effect, but this effect was not robust. The theory offers novel insights into the understanding of humans’ relations with nature and responses to environmental problems. It also suggests potential directions for environmental education and communication. © 2021 The Author

Large populations worldwide have been deprived from nature experiences due to mass quarantines and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, and face a looming mental health crisis. Virtual reality offers a safe and practical solution to increase nature exposure. This research examined the effects of virtual nature using a within-subject design with young adults (Study 1) and senior citizens (Study 2). Results from the young adult sample showed that walking in a virtual forest reduced negative affect due to enhanced nature connectedness, and reduced stress measured by heart rate. Consistently, the senior citizen sample reported improved positive affect due to enhanced nature connectedness after the virtual nature walk. Our findings unveil the underlying mechanism of how virtual nature may improve psychological well-being and demonstrated how virtual nature can be used as an intervention to promote mental health. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature.