SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Influencing pro-environmental behaviors through visual arts: a scoping review of research designs and state of knowledge
Provisionally accepted
- 1Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, Canada
- 2Réseau de recherche en économie circulaire du Québec, Montreal, Canada
- 3Ecole de technologie superieure, Montreal, Canada
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Background: Collaboration between scientists and artists is a growing trend driven notably by the need to take action against climate change. Consequently, the role of art is evolving to serve purposes beyond communication in the scientific community. With artistic projects increasingly becoming a form of intervention to influence pro-environmental behaviors, diverse methods are being deployed to assess their influence on behavior, yet little effort has been made to document coherently this emerging diversity of research designs and learnings. Objective: The aim of this study is to explore methodological approaches used to assess the effects of visual arts in promoting pro-environmental behaviors to fight climate change and determine whether some general trends can be observed. Methodology: We conducted a scoping review to identify empirical papers published between 2001 and 2024, from which 8 studies were selected. The selected papers assessed the influence of artistic intervention on pro-environmental behaviors and its defining variables. Results: We found six redundant attributes in research designs. Four of them (mixed-method approach, literature-based conceptual basis, longitudinal studies, baseline environmental profiles) can help support better research designs, while two others (supplementary material, co-creation) can enhance the influence of science-art projects on behavior. We also found that, among the diverse types of art forms (movies, festivals, exhibitions, murals, immersive installation), none were able to directly and significantly affect behaviors, but they could all affect environmental attitudes or awareness to some degree. Originality: This scoping review stands out from prior studies by highlighting the challenges and opportunities in assessing the influence of art on pro-environmental behaviors, as well as by exploring the role of visual arts for engaging the public in such behaviors.
Keywords: Science-art projects, Artwork, Climate Change, Pro-environmental behavior (PEB), behavior change, methodology, assessment
Received: 24 Sep 2025; Accepted: 13 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gbeve, Francoeur, Bernard and Tanguay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Virginie Francoeur, virginie.francoeur@polymtl.ca
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.