The effect of empathy with nature and humans on conservation behaviour

Fostering positive relationships between humans and nature is essential for global conservation efforts. A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology (Volume 106, September 2025) sheds light on how different forms of empathy influence pro-environmental behaviour.

The research team (Christopher M. Raymond, Max Eriksson, Silviya Korpilo, and Jonathan Carruthers-Jones) examined how conservation behaviour is linked to the object of empathy (nature or other humans), the type of empathy (cognitive or affective), and the behavioural context (private or public).

The results show that empathy with nature was a consistently strong predictor of conservation behaviour in public contexts. Cognitive empathy positively predicted intentions to engage in conservation behaviours in private contexts, while affective empathy showed a weak negative effect on public conservation behaviour. These variations in predictive capacity highlight the importance of moving beyond general measures of empathy with humans in conservation research and practice.