Being good to the earth and happiness

Prinzing’s work indicates that “green” behaviours and positive moods are related. He describes a study he recently completed: “A 10-day experience-sampling study (7,161 observations from 181 adults in 14 countries, primarily the United States) revealed positive within-person and between-person associations, and a randomized controlled experiment (N = 545 U.S. undergraduates) found that incorporating proenvironmental behavior into individuals’ daily activities increased their experiences of happiness and meaning in life. . . . There was some support for the hypothesis that proenvironmental behavior affects well-being by creating a ‘warm glow.’ But overall the findings align more closely with the hypothesis that proenvironmental behavior helps to satisfy individuals’ basic psychological needs.”
Michael Prinzing. “Proenvironmental Behavior Increases Subjective Well-Being: Evidence From an Experience-Sampling Study and a Randomized Experiment.” Psychological Science, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241251766