Spiritually connecting with nature seems to foster concern for environmental issues
Across the world and throughout time, people have felt a spiritual connection with nature. Spirituality that is concerned with the natural world—seeing nature as sacred; connecting with the supernatural in nature—is the oldest form of religion and it still persists today.
You might think that believing nature is sacred would make you care more about its protection and sustainability. We are finding that you'd be correct (with some stunning exceptions).
Across the globe, people who feel ecospiritual tend to be more pro-environmental.
Our work, as cultural psychologists and environmental psychologists, is to understand why.
My studies test some of these accounts across cultures, including:
[1] the moralization of nature activates our moral cognition
[2] the anthropomorphism of nature activates our social cognition
[3] closeness to nature increases our sense of self-efficacy over nature
Key Publications
Review of ecospirituality, sustainability, & well-being.
Billet, M. I., Baimel, A., Schaller, M., & Norenzayan, A. (2025) Ecospirituality. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 34(2), 97-104. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214241304326 [pdf]
Development of Ecospirituality Scale, its link with moralization of nature, and consequences for environmental decision-making.
Billet, M. I., Baimel, A., Sahakari, S. S., Schaller, M., & Norenzayan, A. (2023). Ecospirituality: The psychology of moral concern for nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 87, 102001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102001 [pdf]
Further Work
Ecospirituality promotes prosociality to nature across cultures.
Billet, M. I. & Baimel. A. (in press). Ecospirituality predicts pro-environmental outcomes across cultures. Environment & Behavior. Preprint available: osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/dtu7c
Societal factors predict ecospirituality across cultures.
Billet, M. I. & Baimel. A. (in review). Religion, urbanization, and affluence are antecedents of ecospirituality across cultures. Preprint available: osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/veq2k
Ecospirituality is associated with indicators of well-being.
Billet, M. I., McPherson, A. R., Norenzayan, A., & Schaller, M. (2025). Seeing nature through a spiritual lens: The effects of a novel photo-taking task on environmental concern and well-being. Collabra: Psychology, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.128463 [pdf]
Ecospirituality predicts gratitude to nature across religions.
White, C. J. M., & Billet, M. I. (2024). The roles of anthropomorphism, spirituality, and gratitude in pro-environmental attitudes. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2024.2363759 [pdf]