Pro-environmental behaviors: the role of critical thinking and emotional awareness in shaping sustainable practices

Introduction Critical thinking is increasingly recognized as a key competence for addressing global challenges, including sustainability. At the same time, emotional avoidance-particularly reduced awareness of negative emotions related to climate change-may undermine engagement in environmentally relevant actions. Methods The present study examined the joint role of critical thinking and emotional awareness in shaping self-reported pro-environmental behaviors, using sustainable practices as the primary outcome. A sample of 309 adults (59.5% female; Mage = 31.5, SD = 11.7) completed validated measures of critical thinking dispositions, emotional avoidance, and sustainable behaviors. Results Correlational analyses indicated that critical thinking was positively associated with sustainable behaviors (r = 0.34, p < 0.001), whereas lack of emotional awareness was negatively associated (r = -0.27, p < 0.01). Regression analyses further showed that higher critical thinking independently predicted greater engagement in sustainable behaviors, while reduced emotional awareness predicted lower engagement. Discussion These findings suggest that fostering critical thinking and emotional awareness may support engagement in pro-environmental behavior. The study adopts a Theory of Planned Behavior-informed perspective to frame the investigation of psychological factors associated with self-reported sustainable behaviors, while acknowledging that no TPB model was directly tested.