How Do Vegetarians Make Pro-Environmental Decisions Unrelated to Food Choice? A MouselabWEB Study
(2026) Environment and Behavior — Vol. 58, n° 3, p. 363-395 (2026)
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- Abstract
- Adopting a vegetarian diet represents a meaningful daily contribution to climate change mitigation. This makes vegetarians a relevant group for studying the cognitive mechanisms underlying pro-environmental decision-making. In this study, vegetarians and non-vegetarians completed a decision-making task involving real trade-offs between financial rewards and carbon emissions, with information acquisition tracked using MouselabWEB. We found that vegetarians exhibited a greater propensity to select the pro-environmental option than non-vegetarians. This group difference was particularly found when decisions entailed high personal costs, low environmental benefits, or uncertain outcomes. Process-tracing data further revealed that vegetarians consistently prioritized environmental information, and this attentional focus significantly predicted pro-environmental choices. Decision-level and process-tracing effects were attenuated when controlling for environmental attitudes, highlighting the role of vegetarians’ strong environmental commitment. Overall, the findings suggest that vegetarians may rely on a principled decision-making style that transcends cost–benefit considerations, offering new insights into the cognitive basis of pro-environmental engagement.
- Affiliations
University of Bern Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology
Citations
Zoé Bollen, Daria Knoch, & Sebastian Berger. (2026). How Do Vegetarians Make Pro-Environmental Decisions Unrelated to Food Choice? A MouselabWEB Study. Environment and Behavior, 58(3), 363-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165261419611 (Original work published 2026)