Science Cannot Do It Alone: Habits, Environment, and the Enchantment of Beauty

This paper sets out to analyse the connection between habits and (pro-)environmental attitudes and behaviour. What is a habit? How do we develop habits and how can we change them? Since a large part of our habitual actions seems to be unconscious and (partially) automatic, how can habits be brought to consciousness? What is the impact of our habitual routines and habitual behaviour on the environment (broadly understood) and on the way we see ourselves as part of this environment? Against the background of a multi-faceted philosophical and psychological tradition of studies on the notion of habit, this paper will focus on the relationship between human habits and the environment, and will assess the potential of aesthetics and the arts, with a specific interest in digital arts and virtual immersive environments, to raise awareness of the role of environmental habits in our life.