Social Media May Contribute to Eco-Distress: The Role of Nature Relatedness as Both Causal Mechanism and Protective Factor

The number of individuals seeking help for environmentally related psychological distress (eco-distress) is rising. This study investigates the role of nature relatedness and social media in the etiology of eco-distress in Australian residents. In a between-groups experiment, 193 participants were randomly allocated into one of four social media nature image conditions. Experimental group participants were exposed to either distressing landscape or wildlife images. Control group participants were exposed to either neutral landscapes or wildlife images. Results reveal that exposure to distressing images caused increased psychological distress, with no significant difference between landscapes or wildlife images. Nature relatedness positively predicted both negative affect (R2 = 0.12) and positive affect (R2 = 0.18) after exposure to distressing images. These findings indicate that social media may be a contributing factor to eco-distress and that nature relatedness may act as both a causal mechanism and a protective buffer against eco-distress for those with high nature relatedness after exposure to environmental degradation.