The Ecological Bad is Stronger than Good: Emotions toward Environmentally Harmful Behavior have a Stronger Link to Attitude and Behavior than Emotions toward Environmentally Friendly Behavior

Two studies highlighted the crucial role of emotions towards harmful (vs. friendly) behaviors in environmental decision-making. Study 1 (N = 687) explored the link between pro-environmental attitudes, anticipated emotions, and choices in hypothetical scenarios. Study 2, an experience sampling study (N = 233) analyzed 2005 real-life behaviors to examine the relationship between experienced emotions and environmental attitudes. Results showed that pro-environmental individuals anticipated and experienced stronger negative emotions (guilt, shame) towards harmful actions than positive emotions (pride, elation) for eco-friendly behaviors. In contrast, less environmentally conscious individuals experienced (relatively) positive emotions towards harmful actions and weaker negative emotions for eco-friendly behaviors. Crucially, anticipated emotions regarding harmful actions significantly influenced behavioral decisions more than those related to pro-environmental actions, mediating the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and eventual behavioral decisions. In summary, individuals, regardless of their environmental attitudes, reported stronger emotional responses to environmentally harmful behaviors, supporting the "bad is stronger than good" principle, independent of the valence of emotions.