# The influence of empathy with nature on pro-environmental behaviors in young children: evidence from behavioral and eye-tracking studies

## TL;DR

Empathy with nature encourages young children to act in environmentally friendly ways, and this effect is linked to how much attention they pay to pro-environmental choices.

## Contribution

This study provides new process-level evidence that empathy with nature promotes pro-environmental behavior in young children through enhanced visual attention.

## Key findings

- Children in the empathy condition donated more to an environmental organization than controls.
- Empathy with nature increased visual attention to pro-environmental options, as shown by eye-tracking data.
- Fixation ratios on pro-environmental options were strongly correlated with donation amounts.

## Abstract

The early cultivation of pro-environmental behavior is crucial for sustainable development, yet the mechanisms driving such behavior in early childhood—especially affective factors like empathy with nature—remain underexplored.

Through two experiments combining behavioral and eye-tracking measures, this study examined the effect of empathy with nature on pro-environmental behavior in 4–6-year-olds. Experiment 1 employed a 2 (empathy induced vs. control) × 3 (age: 4, 5, 6 years) between-subjects design with 180 children, measuring donations of stickers and candies to an environmental organization. Experiment 2 recruited 61 five-year-olds and used eye-tracking to investigate the attentional mechanism behind the empathy-behavior link.

Experiment 1 revealed a significant main effect of empathy induction, with children in the empathy condition donating more than controls, and a significant main effect of age, indicating increased donations with age; the interaction was non-significant, suggesting stable empathy effects across ages. Experiment 2 replicated the behavioral effect and showed that children in the empathy condition had significantly higher ratios of total fixation duration and count on the pro-environmental donation option. Both fixation ratios were strongly positively correlated with donation amounts (rs > 0 .79).

These findings demonstrate that empathy with nature is a key affective promoter of pro-environmental behavior in young children, and its mechanism is partially mediated by enhanced visual attentional bias toward pro-environmental options. The study provides new process-level evidence for the empathy–environmentalism link in early development and offers empirical support for empathy-based environmental education practices.