Emotional affinity toward nature in the context of climate-protective behaviour

Research in the field of environmental psychology has shown in recent years that emotions, especially emotional affinity towards nature (Kals, Schumacher, & Montada, 1999), play an important role in the prediction of environmentally significant behavior. The present paper transfers these results to climate relevant action by studying energy saving behavior in the household by integrating affinity towards nature is integrated into value-belief-norm theory (Stern, 2000). Results of a questionnaire study (N = 795) show that emotional affinity toward nature can contribute to the explanation of personal norms of climate protection as well as energy saving behavior. The results are discussed in regard to the integration of emotional factors in models of climate protective behavior