Understanding the Role of Dispositional Mindfulness in Moderating the Environmental Attitude-Behaviour Gap

Whilst awareness about climate change has increased in recent years among the global population, global greenhouse gases emissions have not ceased to rise. As the environmental crisis deepens, understanding why individuals struggle to take action despite increased environmental concern is not only a relevant research question but also a pressing social challenge. Findings from multiple studies point out that higher dispositional mindfulness would be a predictor of higher engagement in pro- environmental behaviour (for a review, see Fisher et al, 2017; and Geiger et al, 2019). This phenomenon has been mostly explained in terms of an increased tendency of mindful individuals to be aware of environmental stimuli, resulting into higher sense of connectedness with (hence concern for) nature and other human-being affected by the crisis. Yet, other studies pinpoint that the positive association between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour might also be related to increased abilities, of individuals high in mindfulness trait, to act with awareness and better control their behaviour (Amel et al., 2009; Li et al., 2021). Based on these findings, and on findings indicating a role of self-regulation processes in explaining pro-environmental behaviour performance (for a review, see Colombo et al., 2023), we made the hypothesis that dispositional mindfulness could contribute to explain why certain individuals are more likely to perform pro- environmental behaviours whilst others seem to struggle to display a behavioural response coherent to their attitudes towards the environmental crisis. To assess our hypothesis, we carried out a first correlational study on 228 people investigating the role of mindfulness in explaining the pro-environmental attitude-behaviour gap. Results indicate that the Acting with Awareness and Nonjudging dimensions of mindfulness would be moderators of the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, suggesting that the positive relationship between mindfulness and pro- environmental engagement could be also explained in terms of better behavioural regulation. The findings, limitations and implications of this study will be discussed. Also, to expand our understanding of the dynamics of the relationship between mindfulness and pro-environmental engagement, we will discuss the first results of a second study (on-going) exploring the potential role of increased emotional regulation in explaining the link between mindfulness trait and pro-environmental behaviour performance.