Care-Based Eco-Feedback Augmented with Generative AI: Fostering Pro-Environmental Behavior through Emotional Attachment

Lights out! With the escalating climate crisis, eco-feedback has gained prominence over the last decade. However, traditional ap- proaches could be underperforming as they often use data-driven strategies and assume that people only need additional information about their consumption to change behavior. A proposed path to overcome this issue is to design eco-feedback to foster emotional connections with users. However, not much is known about the effectiveness of such designs. In this paper, we propose a novel care- based eco-feedback system. Central to the system is a Tamagotchi- inspired digital character named Infi who gets its life force from the user’s energy savings. Additionally, we harness the latest ad- vancements in generative artificial intelligence to enhance emo- tional attachment through conversational interactions that users can have with Infi. The results of a randomized controlled experi- ment (N=420) convey the fact that this design increases emotional attachment, which in turn increases energy-saving behavior.