Encouraging Eco-driving with Post-trip Visualized Storytelling: An Experiment Combining Eye-Tracking and a Driving Simulator

Visualized narratives have been broadly employed to help individuals understand complex environmental issues, increase green awareness, and encourage sustainable behaviors. However, sustainability awareness only sometimes translates to actual green practices. In this study, we develop and test a model that explains how eco-driving behaviors and attitudes toward efficient driving can be promoted with post-trip visualized narratives. Drawing on human-computer interaction research, we integrate the mental construal literature to reveal feasibility and desirability perceptions as underlying mechanisms. We test our hypotheses in two experiments involving eye-tracking and driving simulation. Results show that pairwise animated illustration and prospective narratives elevated eco-driving behaviors and attitudes toward efficient driving. In the meantime, static illustration and retrospective narratives influenced attitudes toward efficient driving. In addition, feasibility and desirability perceptions were significant mediators. Overall, this study contributes to information systems literature, human-computer interaction literature, and the construal level theory by unraveling the effects of post-trip visualized narratives on promoting ecological practices and attitudes.