Let's think about the future: The effect of positive and negative future primes on pro-environmental behavior

Abstract

In an online experiment (N = 810), we examine whether primes on positive and negative future events unrelated to an environmental context affects pro-environmental behavior measured with an incentivized decision task. In this task, individuals decide between keeping money for themselves and investing part or the entire amount in planting trees. The results show that participants primed on future events plant significantly more trees and have higher pro-environmental intentions than participants in the control group, who were primed on leisure activities unrelated to the future. However, we find no statistically significant difference between the positive and negative future priming conditions. Exploring different potential mechanisms behind our results, we find that both future primes activated greater concern for the future and the environment, whereas the leisure prime triggered present concerns. While these results align with our research question, we cannot rule out that the leisure priming may have activated other concerns, unrelated to the present or future, potentially leading to fewer trees planted.