EXPERIENCES WITH NATURE, EMOTIONAL TIES T O NATURE, AND ECOLOGICAL RESPONSIBILITY AS DETERMINANTS OF NATURE PROTECTIVE BEHAVIOR

Corresponding to earlier results, ecologically relevant decisions are based on responsibility related beliefs and emotions. It was examined if, besides these judgments, interest in nature, nature related experi ences along with emotional ties with nature (each measured retrospecti vely as well as for the actual life phase) also explain decisions for the protection of, respectively, burden to natural resources, the coun tryside, as well as flora and fauna. The newly introduced constructs w ere examined as to whether they qualified additionally to predict attr ibutions of responsibility for the protection of nature and the rights to make full use of its opportunities as intermediate criteria. A que stionnaire study was conducted (N = 281) in which the reliability and validity of all newly constructed scales were carefully examined. Regr ession analyses confirm that decisions with relevance for nature are m otivated by attributions of responsibility. In addition, the newly int roduced constructs of interest in nature and emotional ties with natur e play a decisive role. These variables, together with a general ecolo gical awareness and with perceived control beliefs for the protection of nature are strong predictors of the ecological attributions of resp onsibility and the rights to make full use of nature's opportunities. The results stimulate expansions of models of environmentally protecti ve behavior by including nature related experiences, interests, and em otional ties. Moreover, these results support nature-educational appro aches which next to promoting ecological awareness also have the goal of imparting positive experiences with nature.