LAUSR

Abstract Low rates of pro-environmental behavior (PEB) in the population have been explained by the declining frequency of experiences in nature due to urbanization and digitalization. Previous research investigated whether increasing salience of nature through virtual nature experiences is suitable to foster PEB, however, the evidence is not fully conclusive. Therefore, we investigated the effects of virtually increased salience of different concepts on behavior in the Greater Good Game, a social dilemma paradigm measuring PEB independently from cooperation. Both Experiment 1 (N = 49) and Experiment 2 (N = 71) showed that increasing the salience of nature per se did not increase PEB. However, Experiment 2 showed that increased salience of the importance of PEB could increase PEB, though only at the cost of cooperation. In summary, virtual exposure to nature can increase PEB, but side effects on cooperation have to be considered.