Abstract
Background: In recent years, researchers have been paying increasing attention to the issues of how emotions affect people’s perceptions of the environment, and how they influence people’s behavior or intentions to act. The purpose of this study is to explore the influences of emotions on environmental intention to act by using the neuroscience technology electroencephalography (EEG). Methods: A total of 70 university students participated in this study. They looked at positive and negative emotional environmental pictures and decided if they wanted to protect the environment after looking at the pictures. The participants wore an EEG cap throughout the process in order to collect their brain wave (EEG) data. Results: The analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed that the power value of meditation was significantly higher when the participants looked at the positive than at the negative emotional environmental pictures (p < 0.001). The power value of pressure was significantly higher when the participants looked at the negative than at the positive emotional environmental pictures (p < 0.001). The power value of attention was significantly higher when the participants looked at the negative than at the emotional environmental pictures (p < 0.001). Conclusions and recommendations: The findings showed that positive emotional environmental pictures might promote positive emotions, but will decrease the intention to act to protect the environment. In contrast, negative emotional environmental pictures will increase negative emotions, and will also increase attention and intention to act to protect the environment. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Highlights
The goal of environmental education has been identified as improving the health of the world’s ecosystems [1]
The results of the EEG data which were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the power value of meditation was significantly higher when the participants looked at the positive emotional environmental pictures than at the negative pictures (Table 2)
The power value of meditation was significantly higher when the participants looked at the positive emotional environmental pictures than at the negative ones (Table 3)
Summary
The goal of environmental education has been identified as improving the health of the world’s ecosystems [1]. To teach people to achieve that goal, environmental education practitioners have designed a number of curriculum and teaching strategies to improve general environmental knowledge, attitudes and/or behaviors [2]. Researchers have been paying increasing attention to the issues of how emotions affect people’s perceptions of the environment [5,6], and how emotions influence people’s behavior or intentions to act [7]. One of the most likely reasons why researchers are focused on the effects of emotions is that emotions are a basic component of human psychology [5], and people will react to the environment depending on their emotions [7,8]. Researchers have been paying increasing attention to the issues of how emotions affect people’s perceptions of the environment, and how they influence people’s behavior or intentions to act. The purpose of this study is to explore the influences of emotions on environmental intention to act by using the neuroscience technology electroencephalography (EEG)
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