In che modo si sviluppa il senso ecologico?

La moralità ambientale è alla base di un futuro sostenibile, ma in che modo si sviluppa il senso ecologico? Silvia Benavides Varela - DPSS, insieme a Alessandra Geraci (Università per Stranieri “Dante Alighieri” di Reggio Calabria) e Laura Franchin (Università di Trento), hanno cercato di rispondere a questa domanda nei bambini di 7 mesi. Questo studio, in cui per la prima volta vengono studiate queste abilità nei primi mesi di vita, apre nuovi orizzonti per comprendere appunto come i bambini iniziano a percepire i comportamenti che riguardano la protezione dell'ambiente.

L'articolo, che è in inglese, si trova qui.

Abstract:
Environmental morality is the foundation of a sustainable future, yet its ontogenetic origin remains unknown. In the present study, we asked whether 7-month-olds have a sense of ‘environmental morality’. Infants’ evaluations of two pro-environmental actions were assessed in both visual and reaching preferential tasks. In Experiment 1, the overt behavior of protecting (i.e., collecting artificial objects spread on a lawn) was compared with the action of harming the environment (i.e., by disregarding the objects). In Experiment 2, the covert behavior of protecting the environment (i.e., maintaining artificial objects inside a container) was compared with the action of harming the environment (i.e., littering the artificial objects on a lawn). The results showed infants’ reaching preference for the agent who performed overt pro-environmental actions (Experiment 1), and no preference for the agent who performed covert pro-environmental actions (Experiment 2). These findings reveal a rudimentary ecological sense and suggest that infants require different abilities to evaluate overt impact-oriented and covert intend-oriented pro-environmental behaviors.