Because climate change and the biodiversity crisis are driven by human actions, determining psychological mechanisms underpinning support for environmental action is an urgent priority. Here, we experimentally tested for mechanisms promoting conservation-related motivation and behavior toward a flagship species, wild Tamanend's bottlenose dolphins. Following evidence that empathy increases prosocial motivations and behavior, and that the ability to identify individual humans promotes empathy, we tested whether this relationship applied to the ability to identify individual dolphins. Participants identified dolphins from their dorsal fins at above chance levels, and better individuation correlated with higher empathy for dolphins and higher willingness to pledge environmental behaviors. Pairing a narrative with an image of an injured dolphin leads to higher donations relative to a narrative alone. Our novel finding that the ability to individually identify dolphins relates to empathy and conservation-related behavior suggests pathways for strengthening environmental attitudes and behavior.

由于气候变化和生物多样性危机是由人类行为驱动的，因此确定支持环境行动的心理机制是当务之急。在这里，我们通过实验测试了促进旗舰物种野生塔马尼德宽吻海豚的保护相关动机和行为的机制。有证据表明，同理心会增加亲社会动机和行为，并且识别人类个体的能力会促进同理心，我们测试了这种关系是否适用于识别海豚个体的能力。参与者从海豚的背鳍中识别出海豚的几率高于偶然水平，更好的个性化与对海豚的更高同情心和承诺环境行为的更高意愿相关。与单独的叙述相比，将叙述与受伤海豚的图像配对会带来更高的捐款。我们的新发现表明，个体识别海豚的能力与同理心和与保护相关的行为有关，这为加强环境态度和行为提供了途径。