Measuring pro-environmental behavior using the carbon emission task

The present research introduces the Carbon Emission Task (CET) as a new behavioral paradigm grounded in experimental economics. It assesses consequential pro-environmental behavior in laboratory, online, or classroom studies. Participants face repeated tradeoffs between financial bonus opportunities paired with real carbon emissions and foregoing such opportunities while staying carbon neutral. In two studies, we find that people react systematically to the incentives set out in the task and that average pro-environmental behavior correlates with related constructs. Higher bonus prospects decrease pro-environmental behavior, whereas higher environmental consequences increase pro-environmental behavior. Average pro-environmental behavior in the CET correlates with environmental attitudes, belief in climate change, and demographic factors such as gender, education, or political orientation. Finally, average pro-environmental behavior in the CET predicts participants’ reported carbon footprints and their extraction behavior from a common-resource pool. Taken together, our findings suggest that the CET relates to constructs often used in psychological research, but due to its relationship with experimental economics may help to integrate the two disciplines and synthesize the research efforts. In addition, it opens the door for novel research questions testing behavioral reactions under varying sets of incentives. In sum, the CET offers the research community a fast and efficient tool to assess actual and consequential pro-environmental behavior in a way that appeals to various social scientific disciplines.