Exposure to Nature Promotes Cooperation

Pacific Standard:

The philosopher Bertrand Russell famously remarked that “the only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.” New research finds that one way to encourage mutually beneficial behavior is to shift our focus from mankind to Mother Earth.

In the Journal of Environmental Psychology, a team led by Carleton University’s John Zelenski describes three studies in which participants who watched short nature videos (some as brief as two minutes) were subsequently more likely to act in cooperative ways, such as harvesting virtual fish in a way that promotes sustainability.

Read the whole story: Pacific Standard