Neurosustainability: A Scoping Review on the Neuro-Cognitive Bases of Sustainable Decision-Making

TL;DR

This review explores how brain processes influence sustainable decision-making and pro-environmental behaviors to help address climate change.

Contribution

The paper provides a novel synthesis of neuro-cognitive mechanisms underlying sustainable decision-making.

Findings

Sustainable decision-making involves brain areas related to mentalizing and moral cognition.

It is influenced by modulatory factors similar to those in prosocial behaviors.

Attentional, emotional, and decision-making brain regions are also engaged in sustainable choices.

Abstract

As climate change continues to endanger a sustainable global condition, a growing literature investigates how to pursue green practices to fight its effects. Individuals are the essential starting point for such bottom-up attempts, with their attitudes towards sustainability driving pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). Objectives: Based on the available relevant literature, this scoping review aims to delve into the processes underlying people’s sustainable decision-making (SDM) associated with PEBs. Methods: A scientific literature search was performed through (a) an active database search and (b) the identification of studies via reference and citation tracking. Results were screened and selected in Rayyan. Results: Included articles (n = 30) heterogeneously reported cognitive and neural aspects of SDM shaping PEBs. These proved to (a) recruit brain areas involved in mentalizing and moral cognition (likely because of their role in processing the interplay between personal and contextual factors rather than moral considerations in themselves); (b) undergo the same modulatory influences shaping other kinds of prosocial/cooperative behaviors; and (c) include brain areas involved in attentional/monitoring and emotional/motivational processes, alongside those consistently associated with decision-making processes. Conclusions: These results help interpret the available evidence on the neuro-cognitive bases of SDM while focusing on potential interventions to foster better practices and mitigate the adverse repercussions of climate change on human and global health.

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