Abstract: Driven by the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, together with the imperative of resource conservation, advancing a circular economy has become an essential pathway for industrial transformation and the green consumption upgrading. The 3R principles—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle—serve as fundamental guidelines for promoting a circular economy. However, existing research and policies predominantly focus on supply-side optimization at the production stage, with insufficient attention paid to consumer behavior on the demand side and the visual nudging mechanisms that shape it. To address this issue, this research aligns the 3R principles with the entire consumption process. Drawing on psychological distance theory, this research examines, under conditions in which environmental responsibility is not made salient, the differential effects of visual perspective (first-person vs. third-person) on tendency to reduce consumption at the purchase stage (Study 1), product reuse behavior at the use stage (Study 2), and product recycling intention at the disposal stage (Study 3), as well as the psychological mechanisms underlying them. Theoretically, this study constructs an implementation pathway and framework for the 3R principles from the demand side of the circular economy, extends the research on visual perspective into the domain of sustainable consumption, and enriches the theoretical framework for visual nudges for demand-side sustainable consumption. Practically, it offers concrete suggestions for governments to promote demand-side circular economy development and provides enterprises with practical guidance on using visual perspective to nudge sustainable consumption.

Key words: Visual Perspective, Sustainable Consumption, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle