When environmental harm becomes cultural harm: The joint role of environmental identity and national-cultural identity in responses to threats to culturally meaningful landscapes

Natural landscapes often carry culturally shared meanings, yet ecological harm is not always experienced as culturally threatening. The present research proposes a contextualized functional account of environmental identity: when natural landscapes are construed as culturally meaningful symbols of one’s nation, environmental identity makes the cultural implications of ecological harm psychologically salient, and national-cultural identity strengthens the expression of environmental identity in response to ecological harm. This account was supported across two studies. In Study 1 (cross-sectional; N = 300, Chinese sample), national-cultural identity moderated the relationship between environmental identity and responses to a real-world promotional campaign causing ecological harm to a culturally meaningful landscape (Mount Everest). Environmental identity was more strongly associated with perceived cultural impact, specific negative emotions, and negative evaluations of the associated brand at higher (vs. lower) levels of national-cultural identity. In Study 2 (experimental; N = 287, American sample), environmental identity showed stronger associations with perceived cultural impact and sadness in response to a fictitious brand campaign causing ecological harm to a culturally meaningful landscape (the Rocky Mountains) in the national-cultural identity (vs. neutral) condition. These findings highlight the joint role of environmental identity and national-cultural identity in response to ecological harm in culturally meaningful landscapes.