Beauty Builds Cooperation by Increasing Moral Concern for the Environment

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the role of moral value in influencing cooperative behavior in environmental conservation. Our research involved two studies examining whether attributing moral value to non-sentient resources (the environment) impacts participants’ resource preservation actions. Results revealed that associating an environmental consequence with resource consumption led to increased cooperative behavior, driven by a desire to protect trees and nature’s intrinsic value. Further, participants demonstrated higher conservation efforts when the environmental consequence was paired with a beautiful image of a tree. These findings suggest that the beauty of nature may be a significant drive..