We’re excited to share a new publication from our team in Communications Psychology. The study introduces an experimental paradigm that measures how people trade off time and effort when deciding between actions that benefit themselves versus the environment.

Using real physical effort and real waiting-time costs, the research shows that people are generally less willing to incur costs for pro-environmental outcomes than for self-benefitting ones—especially when rewards are high. At the computational level, the study reveals distinct discounting patterns for effort and time, highlighting key motivational asymmetries in climate-relevant decision-making.

Importantly, individuals who were less willing to invest time and effort for environmental outcomes also showed lower support for costly climate policies, linking lab behaviour to broader societal action.

Read the full article here: www.nature.com/articles/s44271-025-00347-x