The Environmental Decision Task: A new behavioral paradigm for studying the money-environment trade-off

Abstract

Whether people make pro-environmental decisions often depends on the extent to which personal consequences outweigh environmental consequences. Recently, some decision tasks have been introduced to study pro-environmental decision-making in controlled settings when there is a trade-off between environmental and individual consequences. The primary aim of the current research was to develop a new, intuitive, easy-to-perform, and easy-to-conduct task to study the money-environment trade-off. In the Environmental Decision Task (EDT), participants decide whether to receive money or invest it in the fight against climate change. Four studies (N = 1573) showed that the EDT score shared variation with self-reported pro-environmental and pro-self propensities. Open-ended responses further confirmed that participants' choices aligned with the task's intended purpose. To assess the efficiency and validity of the EDT, we compared performance across versions varying in task length, from brief nine-trial to extended 48-trial formats, and in incentive structures, including both consequential and hypothetical outcomes. Results suggest that these shorter versions capture decision patterns similar to the longer task, making the EDT practical for brief (online) studies. However, comparisons between consequential and hypothetical versions revealed some differences, indicating that hypothetical trials may not fully replicate real-stakes decision-making. Therefore, while hypothetical EDT versions appear useful approximations, further research is needed to clarify the impact of incentive structures on task outcomes.