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

Introduction 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. Methods 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. Results 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 ( r s > 0 .79). Discussion 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.