The environmental psychology of pro-sustainability virtues

This chapter analyzes variables that may enhance or constrain the development of pro-sustainability virtues, and it discusses how certain changes in environmental conditions may lead virtuous people to produce either pro-sustainable or anti-sustainable behaviors. In our analysis, virtues are conceived as traits serving adaptive purposes and subject to environmental influences, which can moderate the virtues-sustainable behavior relationship. We introduce a framework to investigate environment-behavior interactions that include pro-sustainability virtues. This framework is based on the idea that “positive environments, " settings that are able to meet human needs, simultaneously incite the development of virtuous tendencies and behaviors aimed at protecting the socio-physical environment.