The rapid growth of the construction industry has led to significant environmental issues, notably the sharp escalation in construction waste. Recent endeavors have prioritized on recycling and reusing of construction waste. Nevertheless, despite the evident public support, the adoption of recycled products remains constrained, primarily as a result of subsequent unfavorable implicit perceptions. To understand the end users’ implicit attitudes, this study employed a Single-Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for analysis. The experiment results confirm the existence of detrimental implicit attitudes, even as self-reported attitudes remained positive. The experiment results, D-scores, suggest that emotional interventions have stronger impact as they reach peak (15.9s) 36% faster that the rational interventions. The proposed implicit attitude measurement approach can be extended to understand and promote other green products and recycled materials.