How do we make pro-environmental decisions? An eye-tracking study of the role of attitudes and attention in pro-environmental decision-making

Bollen, Zoé;et.al.
(2025) International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP) — Location: Vilnius, Lithuania (15.June.2025)

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Introduction: Climate change mitigation is a critical challenge urgently calling on individuals to adopt more pro-environmental behaviours. While prior research has primarily examined the key factors explaining why people behave (un)sustainably, the cognitive processes underlying how they make such decisions remain poorly understood. Goals & Objectives: This preregistered study investigates the role of environmental attitudes and attentional processes during decision-making involving real trade-offs between personal financial rewards and environmental consequences. Materials & Methods: In a laboratory setting, 114 university students completed an adapted version of the carbon emission task while their eye movements were recorded via eye-tracking, providing direct measures of information acquisition and weighting preceding decision-making. After the task, environmental attitudes were assessed using the Schwartz Value Scale and the Campbell Paradigm. Results: Using mixed-effect models, we found that stronger Campbellian environmental attitudes predicted an attentional prioritization of environmental information (i.e., CO2 emissions), as reflected by a higher proportion of fixation time on this information, and an increasing likelihood of fixating it first once participants became familiar with the task. In contrast, the attention-behaviour link appears context-dependent, influenced by factors such as the magnitude of financial incentives and environmental stakes. Notably, while attention played a role in financially less rewarding choices, we speculate that financially more rewarding decisions may involve higher-order cognitive processes. Conclusions: These findings emphasize the interplay between attentional dynamics, decision context, and environmental attitudes in shaping pro-environmental behaviour. Integrating these insights could inform strategies to promote pro-environmental decision-making.

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Bollen, Z., & et al. (2025). How do we make pro-environmental decisions? An eye-tracking study of the role of attitudes and attention in pro-environmental decision-making. International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Vilnius, Lithuania.