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.

本研究介绍了碳排放任务（CET）作为一种新的行为范式，立足于实验经济学。它评估实验室，在线或课堂研究中相应的环保行为。在保持碳中和的同时，参与者面临着财务红利机会与实际碳排放量之间以及在避免此类机会的过程中反复权衡的问题。在两项研究中，我们发现人们对任务中提出的激励机制做出了系统反应，并且平均的亲环境行为与相关的构想相关。较高的奖金前景会减少环保行为，而较高的环境后果则会增加环保行为。CET中的平均环保行为与环境态度，对气候变化的信念以及诸如性别，教育或政治倾向等人口因素相关。最后，CET中的平均环保行为可预测参与者报告的碳足迹及其从公共资源库中的提取行为。综上所述，我们的发现表明，英语四级考试与心理学研究中经常使用的结构有关，但由于它与实验经济学的关系，可能有助于整合这两个学科并综合研究工作。此外，它还为测试在各种激励措施下的行为反应的新颖研究问题打开了大门。总之，CET为研究社区提供了一种快速有效的工具，以一种吸引各种社会科学学科的方式评估实际和相应的环保行为。