Seeing nature through a spiritual lens: An experimental test of the effects of a novel photo-taking task on environmental concern and well-being.

Previous research has shown that people who report a greater spiritual connection with nature (“ecospirituality”) express a more highly moralized concern for its preservation. Other results also suggest a possible link between ecospirituality and subjective well-being. In order to test the causal nature of these relations, we created a novel intervention designed to temporarily boost ecospirituality and, in a high-powered preregistered study (N=779), tested the effects of this intervention (compared to two control conditions) on measures assessing concern for the environment and well-being. Results on the effects of the ecospirituality intervention were inconclusive: Participants in all three conditions showed similar pre-intervention/post-intervention changes on the dependent measures, and also showed similar pre/post changes in self-reported ecospirituality (which served as a manipulation check). Exploratory correlational results showed that, across conditions, pre/post increases in self-reported ecospirituality predicted increases in both environmental concern and well-being. The correlational results replicate and extend prior findings—suggesting that ecospirituality may offer benefits to nature and to oneself—but additional research is required to establish causal evidence for this contention.