Integral eco-emotions and non-market environmental valuation: An affective-based framework

Non-market environmental valuation studies have incorporated and empirically examined a structured set of cognitive determinants underlying individual preferences, yet the role of affective responses remains theoretically underdeveloped. Literature suggests that incidental emotions, or mood states unrelated to the ecosystem being valued, have no significant effect on stated preferences, a null result further corroborated by ambient weather as an additional incidental trigger. Drawing on the integral/incidental distinction from the decision-making literature, we argue that this null result constitutes a boundary condition and not a general decision on the role of affect in valuation. We propose an Affective Framework, organizing eco-emotions by motivational orientation (approach versus avoidance) and semantic origin (integral versus incidental). Approach-oriented positive eco-emotions, including awe, hope, connectedness to nature, and perceived restorativeness, are predicted to amplify stated preferences. Approach-oriented negative eco-emotions, such as eco-worry, moral guilt, solastalgia, and anticipated regret, activate environmental concern and elevate willingness to pay. Avoidance-oriented eco-emotions, notably clinical eco-anxiety, despair, and eco-paralysis, suppress stated preferences by reducing perceived self-efficacy. Three mechanisms ground these predicted effects: the risk-as-feelings hypothesis, the affect heuristic, and feelings as information theory. The proposed framework offers a theoretically coherent explanation for a previously unexplained method effect in stated preference research and informs future empirical investigation.