Rendering sustainable consumer behavior more sustainable : psychological tools for marketing pro-social commitment.

This dissertation deals with persuasive communication in the context of social marketing, which is a field devoted to the promotion of socially desirable behavior. We focused on the promotion of pro-environmental behavior. The decision whether or not to behave environmentally friendly confronts the individual with a social dilemma. This is a choice between an option that serves the collective interest and an option that serves his or her self-interest. Choosing the environmentally friendly option is in the interest of others (e.g., the community, society, even future generations) but is often associated with a cost to the individual, like money, time, effort, or inconvenience. Therefore, convincing an individual to behave environmentally friendly implies persuading him or her to pursue the interest of others at the cost of his or her immediate self-interest. The social marketing approach traditionally relies on the assumption that successful behavioral change towards serving the collective interest, directly follows from having people think about the consequences of behavioral alternatives. Informational and educational campaigns based on this idea have indeed been very successful at generating awareness and concern about environmental issues, but, in contrast, disappointingly unsuccessful at making people change their behavior. We propose an complementary approach that consists of activating the right pro-environmental value in a more subtle way. We found, using laboratory games with a social dilemma structure, that decisions can be based on either an intuitive or a more rational system. People with pro-social values tend to behave more pro-socially than people with pro-self values when they followed their intuitive system. However, when thinking more rationally, pro-socials and pro-selfs behaved equally selfishly. Thinking seems to enable individuals to find justifications for behaving selfishly. Therefore we present two persuasion techniques, which do not motivate people to think, but which simply suggest or remind people that they hold pro-environmental values. Positive cueing reminds people of cases in which they behaved pro-environmentally in the past, and social labeling describes a person as being concerned with the environment. Both tools were more successful at producing more environmentally friendly behavior than educational campaigns.

Environmentally sustainable food consumption : a review and research agenda from a goal-directed perspective

The challenge of convincing people to change their eating habits toward more environmentally sustainable food consumption (ESFC) patterns is becoming increasingly pressing. Food preferences, choices and eating habits are notoriously hard to change as they are a central aspect of people's lifestyles and their socio-cultural environment. Many people already hold positive attitudes toward sustainable food, but the notable gap between favorable attitudes and actual purchase and consumption of more sustainable food products remains to be bridged. The current work aims to (1) present a comprehensive theoretical framework for future research on ESFC, and (2) highlight behavioral solutions for environmental challenges in the food domain from an interdisciplinary perspective. First, starting from the premise that food consumption is deliberately or unintentionally directed at attaining goals, a goal-directed framework for understanding and influencing ESFC is built. To engage in goal-directed behavior, people typically go through a series of sequential steps. The proposed theoretical framework makes explicit the sequential steps or hurdles that need to be taken for consumers to engage in ESFC. Consumers need to positively value the environment, discern a discrepancy between the desired versus the actual state of the environment, opt for action to reduce the experienced discrepancy, intend to engage in behavior that is expected to bring them closer to the desired end state, and act in accordance with their intention. Second, a critical review of the literature on mechanisms that underlie and explain ESFC (or the lack thereof) in high-income countries is presented and integrated into the goal-directed framework. This contribution thus combines a top-down conceptualization with a bottom-up literature review; it identifies and discusses factors that might hold people back from ESFC and interventions that might promote ESFC; and it reveals knowledge gaps as well as insights on how to encourage both short- and long-term ESFC by confronting extant literature with the theoretical framework. Altogether, the analysis yields a set of 33 future research questions in the interdisciplinary food domain that deserve to be addressed with the aim of fostering ESFC in the short and long term

Attitude towards Green Consumption among College and University Students in Bahawalpur Pakistan

Green consumption is using goods and services to fulfill needs, adopting a better lifestyle while decreasing the consumption of natural assets, unhealthy material and outflow of waste and impurities in daily lives to save the environment for future generations. The main objective was to identify the impact of Green Attitude on green purchase intention and green purchase behavior along with sub variables. The study was conducted in the area of South Punjab, Pakistan in which the students were taken as consumers to find out if the consumer attitude has any impact on green purchase intention and green purchase behavior. The population of the study was students enrolled in colleges and universities of South Punjab Pakistan which includes the levels of study intermediate, graduation, masters, MPhil and PhD with the sample of 250. SPSS software was used to interpret the collecting data to draw results. This study has limited data, limited time, limited and limited sources, limited population, due to which results of this study may not be generalizable to other population or place. The conclusion of the study was that there is a positive impact of Attitude on Green Purchase Intention and Green Purchase Intention and there is positive and slightly strong relationship between the independent and dependent variables

Post-Release Dispersal in Animal Translocations: Social Attraction and the “Vacuum Effect”

Animal translocations are human-induced colonizations that can represent opportunities to contribute to the knowledge on the behavioral and demographic processes involved in the establishment of animal populations. Habitat selection behaviors, such as social cueing, have strong implications on dispersal and affect the establishment success of translocations. Using modeling simulations with a two-population network model (a translocated population and a remnant population), we investigated the consequences of four habitat selection strategies on post-translocation establishment probabilities in short- and long-lived species. Two dispersal strategies using social cues (conspecific attraction and habitat copying) were compared to random and quality-based strategies. We measured the sensitivity of local extinctions to dispersal strategies, life cycles, release frequencies, remnant population and release group sizes, the proportion of breeders and the connectivity between populations. Our results indicate that social behaviors can compromise establishment as a result of post-release dispersal, particularly in long-lived species. This behavioral mechanism, the “vacuum effect”, arises from increased emigration in populations that are small relative to neighboring populations, reducing their rate of population growth. The vacuum effect can drive small remnant populations to extinction when a translocated group is large. In addition, the magnitude of the vacuum effect varies non-linearly with connectivity. The vacuum effect represents a novel form of the behaviorally mediated Allee effect that can cause unexpected establishment failures or population extinctions in response to social cueing. Accounting for establishment probabilities as a conditional step to the persistence of populations would improve the accuracy of predicting the fates of translocated or natural (meta)populations

Appraising the influence of pro-environmental self-identity on sustainable consumption buying and curtailment in emerging markets: Evidence from China and Poland

Understanding sustainable consumption buying and curtailment behavior in emerging markets is limited, yet this knowledge is vital to the future of these economies. The newer conceptualization of pro-environmental self-identity (PESI), as environmentally-friendly dynamic-self, can significantly inform comprehension of these behaviors, and strengthen them. Utilizing intra-personal influences and situational cueing, this paper appraises the influence of PESI on the sustainable buying and curtailment behaviors of consumers in China and Poland. Surveying these consumers, PESI was confirmed as a significant influence on their buying and curtailment behaviors. Contextual and behavioral distinctions also emerged, highlighting a buying emphasis in China and curtailment orientation in Poland. Notably, PESI was found to be multi-activated by situational cueing, moral responsibility, assessment, social desirability, tinted by consumer effectiveness and knowledge. Important implications arise for eco-innovation and buying and curtailment policy-making in emerging markets. PESI consumers have a potential active stakeholder role in this innovation and policy development

Does Green Consumerism Increase the Acceptance of Wind Power?

In this paper, we discuss what might be termed an action-based learning approach to promoting important pro-environmental actions, such as support for or acceptance of environmental policy. Such an approach involves promoting simple and easy behaviours as entry points for more radical steps towards sustainability, referred to as “catalytic” or “wedge” behaviours. Despite the obvious need for innovative approaches to promote important pro-environmental behaviour, and sound theoretical backing for such concepts, there is a lack of research testing the key propositions of this approach. In a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of Maine, USA, we find that both everyday “green” behaviour and the acceptance of an expansion of wind power are rooted in environmental concern and that everyday “green” behaviour gives a significant contribution to predicting acceptance of wind power when controlling for environmental concern. Hence, the promotion of everyday “green” behaviours may prepare the grounds for increasing acceptance of more far-reaching changes in the population, such as an expansion of wind power

The influence of a company´s communicated CSR initiative on private consumer behavior

The aim of this research is to determine if and how a company’s CSR initiative influences private consumer behavior. Hereby it is also considered whether the consumers’ support of the issue exerts influence on private behavior and evaluations of the company behind the CSR initiative. An online experimentaimed at assessing differences in reported sustainable behavior among respondent groups, of which one was exposed to a CSR initiative by a company. Results ofthe experimentshow no significant changes in reported consumer behavior between respondent groupsanddo not point towardstangible benefits for consumers orsociety as a whole

Climate-relevant behavioral spillover and the potential contribution of social practice theory

Urgent and radical transition to lower-carbon forms of society is imperative to limit current and future climate change impacts. Behavioral spillover theory offers a way to catalyze broad lifestyle change from one behavior to another in ways that generate greater impacts than piecemeal interventions. Despite growing policy and research attention, the evidence for behavioral spillover and the processes driving the phenomenon are unclear. The literature is split between studies that provide evidence for positive spillover effects (where an intervention targeting an environmentally conscious behavior leads to an increase in another functionally related behavior) and negative spillover effects (where an intervention targeting an environmentally conscious behavior leads to a decrease in another functionally related behavior). In summarizing findings, particular attention is given to the implications for climate-relevant behaviors. While few examples of climate-relevant behavioral spillover exist, studies do report positive and negative spillovers to other actions, as well as spillovers from behavior to support for climate change policy. There is also some evidence that easier behaviors can lead to more committed actions. The potential contribution of social practice theory to understanding spillover is discussed, identifying three novel pathways to behavioral spillover: via carriers of practices, materiality, and through relationships between practices within wider systems of practice. In considering future research directions, the relatively neglected role of social norms is discussed as a means to generate the momentum required for substantial lifestyle change and as a way of circumventing obstructive and intransigent climate change beliefs

Investigating the Influence of the Built Environment on Energy-Saving Behaviors

This dissertation addresses a gap in the existing sustainability behavior research, by integrating research from the social sciences about environmental attitudes and knowledge with approaches from engineering regarding the characteristics of the built environment. Specifically, this dissertation explores the role of both environmental knowledge and design features within the built environment on building occupants\u27 energy behaviors throughout the course of an environmental conservation campaign. Data were collected from 240 dormitory residents using a multi-phase questionnaire approach to study these factors and their combined impact within the context of environmental sustainability practices on UCF\u27s campus. The results from a series of correlational and multiple regression analyses indicate that both the design components of the built environment and the attitudes held by individuals within that environment have a significant positive influence on behaviors. Furthermore, these findings indicated that this effect increases significantly when the two factors work together. Finally, the results show that pro- environmental attitudes and behaviors can be successfully targeted through a cue-based energy conservation campaign. By addressing a gap in the extant Human Factors research about the relationship between attitudinal factors and the built environment, this dissertation provides a unique contribution to the field and points the way towards development of promising solutions for encouraging sustainable behaviors