could spending time in natural scenery also have larger implications for how we behave politically, or how we treat one another?

A new study suggests the answer is yes.

The paper, just out in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, is by psychologist John M. Zelenski and several other colleagues from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. In the study, the researchers wanted to test the idea that there’s a link between actually experiencing the natural world, and behaving in a sustainable way. “We hypothesize that participants exposed to nature will make more cooperative, and thus sustainable, choices,” they wrote.