Natural and Moral Beauty Have Indirect Effects on Proenvironmental Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effectiveness of video-induced emotions on motivation for proenvironmental behavior (PEB). Participants (n = 205) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: viewing short videos of (1) natural beauty, (2) environmental degradation (ugly nature), or (3) moral beauty; and two control conditions: videos of (4) mundane nature (rocks in a desert) and (5) non-nature (flute making). Surprisingly, none of the videos, and resulting emotional states, had direct effects on PEB, but they did have indirect effects through the self-transcendent emotions of awe and elevation, and through visual beauty. The natural beauty video, compared with the non-nature video, promoted intentions for PEB (I-PEB) and donation behavior, through the specific indirect effect of elevation (but not awe); likewise, the natural beauty video, compared with the mundane nature video, also promoted both I-PEB and donation behavior through the indirect effect of elevation (and again, not through awe). The moral beauty video, compared with the non-nature video, promoted I-PEB and donation behavior, through the combined influence of awe and elevation, but not from either awe or elevation alone; the same pattern emerged when comparing the effects of the moral beauty video with the mundane nature video. The level of visual beauty of the videos positively predicted both I-PEB and donation behavior. Unexpectedly, the natural beauty and moral beauty videos were rated equally high on the moral emotion of elevation. However, this can be explained by past research indicating that beautiful landscapes have moral standing.