Pamela Pensini

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Monash University (Australia)

The rapid advancement and integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into various aspects of human life necessitates understanding individual differences in attitudes towards AI. Typically, the Big Five has been applied to explore these individual differences; however, this model may overlook a critical dimension related to ethical AI use: Honesty...

Environmental decisions and policies are often depicted as having win-lose trade-offs with humanity's ability to thrive. These zero-sum beliefs about the relationship between nature and humanity (ZSB-NH) have significant implications for how individuals behave concerning our natural environment. However, no measure exists to operationalise this con...

Abundant psychological research demonstrates bivariate relationships between individual prosocial propensity, intrinsic connectedness to various social domains, and the enactment of prosocial behavior. More recently, “connectedness” has been positioned as a necessary domain‐specific motivator for enacting prosocial propensity in relevant domains of...

Both altruistic and ecological behaviours are considered prosocially driven behaviours, but our understanding of what motivates action in either the human or ecological domain is still in its infancy. Our goal was to assess connection to nature, connection to people, and connection to country as mediators of the relationship between prosocial prope...

Understanding individual difference factors that underpin pro-environmental behaviours (PEB) is important in this age of global climate change. This research extends recent research on the prosocial foundation of PEB which has shown that connectedness to nature and connectedness to community to mediate the effect of prosocial propensity on PEB. Thi...

Although both altruistic and ecological behaviors can be considered prosocially driven behaviors, our psychological understanding of what motivates action in either the human or ecological domains is still in its infancy. We aimed to assess connection to nature and connection to humans as mediators of the relationship between prosocial propensity a...

Anthropomorphism of nature is known to be related to pro-environmental outcomes; however, little is known about these variables in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The economic impact of the prolonged lockdowns may disrupt the historical relationship between these variables, as financial insecurity may compete with environmental concerns fo...

Connectedness to Nature (CN) is an antecedent to various positive mental health and behavioural outcomes. Previous research has established nature exposure (NE) to be a key determinant of CN, with higher levels of NE observed to result in higher CN. Thus, the current research tested the effect of nature guided imagery (GI) on CN, to ascertain wheth...

Leisure air travel is a popular form of tourism, but its emissions are a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change. Restrictions to leisure air travel have previously received little support; however, the same restrictions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have been popular. This support is unlikely to persist in a postpandemic world, high...

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread travel restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. It is therefore necessary to understand factors that lead to support for these imposed travel restrictions. Given the reduced environmental impact (e.g., reduced pollution) resulting from travel restrictions, these restrictions can be viewed thro...

Prior research has focused on individual difference variables that predict various prosocial behaviors. This work, however, has neglected to consider the underlying commonalities between the different domains behavior can be performed. In line with other authors we propose that individual difference factors can indicate one’s propensity toward acti...

The promotion of environmental knowledge is viewed as a fundamental component of environmental education and a necessary prerequisite to ecological behaviour; however, it has little effect on actual behaviour. Nature-based environmental education, which combines the acquisition of environmental knowledge with the promotion of an intrinsic driver, n...

This study explores the relationships between adults' childhood nature exposure (NE), current NE, and mental well-being. Correlational data from two countries (Australia and Germany) found positive relationships between both childhood and current NE and numerous mental well-being indicators. However, the contribution of childhood NE was indirect, t...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different community groups differ in the extent to which environmentally friendly behaviours are performed, as well as how they differ across a host of other psychologically relevant variables. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted via a self‐report questionnaire delivered to fo...

There is overwhelming evidence that environmental concerns currently facing the modern world are, at least partly, due to the unsustainable use of resources in developed countries. In this study, feelings of collective guilt in members of a developed nation, Australia, were investigated as a factor motivating individuals to recycle. Eighty-five par...