In a world filled with human artefacts, sustainable living depends on people paying attention to and using environmentally beneficial objects, and avoiding environmentally harmful ones. In two studies, we investigate whether Australians and Germans with stronger pro-environmental tendencies (i.e., different types of measures that tap the goal of protecting the environment) pay more attention to signs and objects that help or hinder the pursuit of the environmental protection goal. We are further interested in whether visual priming and cultural background affect the attentional process. Regardless of priming, Australians and Germans who frequently engage in pro-environmental behaviours are visually attentive to environmentally harmful objects such as paper cups and cars, but do not seem to attend more to environmentally beneficial objects such as reusable bags or trams. Insights gained from the studies help to understand the goal-attention link in an environmental context and the instigation and maintenance of sustainable behaviours.

在充满人工制品的世界中，可持续生活取决于人们关注和使用对环境有益的物体，并避免对环境有害的物体。在两项研究中，我们调查了具有更强环保意识的澳大利亚人和德国人（即，采取保护环境目标的不同类型的措施）是否更多地关注有助于或阻碍实现环境保护目标的标志和物体。 。我们进一步关注视觉启动和文化背景是否会影响注意力过程。不论是否上底漆，经常进行环保行为的澳大利亚人和德国人在视觉上都会注意纸杯和汽车等对环境有害的物体，但似乎并没有更多地关注对环境有益的物品，例如可重复使用的袋子或有轨电车。从研究中获得的见识有助于理解环境中的目标关注联系以及鼓励和维持可持续行为。