Recalled vs. Experienced Emotions as Drivers of Pro-Environmental Behaviour: Experimental Evidence from Ghana and the Philippines

Emotions are widely invoked to motivate climate action, yet how different forms of emotional activation translate into costly, real-world pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) remains unclear. This study examines whether positive emotions triggered by (i) recalling past PEB and (ii) engaging with environmental social media content increase subsequent donations to an environmental NGO. We implemented incentivised 2×2 between-subjects experiments among middle-class respondents in Ghana (N = 789) and the Philippines (N = 972) between April and May 2022, comparing the individual and combined effects of these two interventions on real donation decisions, and testing the mediating role of self-reported positive emotion. In the Philippines, both recall and engagement significantly increased donation amounts, with recall showing a robust effect across model specifications and indicative evidence of a small, partial mediation via positive emotions. The combined treatment, however, did not yield an interaction effect, suggesting additive rather than synergistic impacts. In Ghana, neither intervention nor emotional responses predicted donations; instead, beliefs about donation effectiveness and sociodemographic characteristics were the main predictors of environmental donations. These cross-country differences suggest that emotional drivers of climate engagement may be culturally and contextually contingent rather than universal. By experimentally contrasting recalled and experienced emotions and linking them to incentive-compatible PEB, the study advances behavioural and communication research on climate emotions. It highlights the need for emotionally intelligent, context-sensitive climate communication strategies that are personally meaningful and are tailored to local socio-economic environments.