Empathic Joy and Nature

The present study examined whether imagine-self perspective taking can evoke empathic joy for a non-sentient natural entity (a tree). It was hypothesized that relative to an objective perspective, imagine-self perspective taking would result in higher levels of empathic joy for an unharmed natural entity, but only if the observer first anthropomorphizes the entity. Undergraduate participants (N = 223) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, each involving presentation of an ostensible social media post with an image of a mature tree. Information about the tree and perspective taking while reading the post were experimentally manipulated after which participants rated their feelings of joy. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants who received imagine-self perspective taking instructions and personalizing information about the tree reported higher levels of joy than those given objective perspective taking instructions or factual information. Correlations between ratings of happiness, imagine-self perspective taking, and anthropomorphizing in a no-information/no-perspective condition also produced a pattern consistent with the hypothesis. Results suggest empathy for nature may operate in a manner similar to empathy for humans with important practical implications for pro-environmental behavior as well as important theoretical implications for understanding empathic processes more generally.