One way to generate the money needed for sustainable innovation is by consumer choosing freely for sustainable products. This way, consumer choice pays for the innovative production method. This requires consumer willingness to buy these products. Willingness to buy is however not so easily measured as the intentions to buy may only partially predict actual purchase behaviour. There is a gap between what consumer say they want, and what they do in practice. For the specific case of sustainable production, consumers often say they are very positive about sustainable products (angelic opinion), yet in their daily behaviour they frequently tend to choose convenient and cheap products (demonic behaviour)

Fischer, A.

Jonge, J., de

Noordewier, M.

Stapel, D.

Trijp, J.C.M., van

English

de Jonge, J.

van Trijp, J.C.M.

NARCIS 

Evaluation "Angels and Demons" (WP-116)

Name not available

Wageningen Yield 

 
 
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Evaluation “Angels and Demons” (WP-116)  
 
Projectpartners: Marret Noordewier (UvT), Janneke de Jonge (WU), Diederik Stapel (Uvt – project leader) 
TransForum: Arnout Fischer en Hans van Trijp 
Duration: 1 april 2007 – 31 december 2009 
 
 
Introduction 
One way to generate the money needed for sustainable innovation is by consumer choosing freely for 
sustainable products. This way, consumer choice pays for the innovative production method. This requires 
consumer willingness to buy these products. Willingness to buy is however not so easily measured as the 
intentions to buy may only partially predict actual purchase behaviour. There is a gap between what consumer 
say they want, and what they do in practice. 
 
For the specific case of sustainable production, consumers often say they are very positive about sustainable 
products (angelic opinion), yet in their daily behaviour they frequently tend to choose convenient and cheap 
products (demonic behaviour).  
 
Aim 
This project tries to provide insight in the underlying causes for these differences between attitude and 
behaviour, with the aim to provide action perspective for the positioning of sustainable products. 
 
Set up 
To achieve the aim the project has a 3-pronged approach. 
1) To gain insight in the issue of attitude behaviour discrepancies a symposium was held were experts in 
the study of attitude-behaviour  discrepancies (or multiple selves – Consumer versus Citizen) 
presented recent work, and were policy makers and applied scientists participated in the audience 
and the discussion. 
2) A research project investigating the attitude behaviour gap from the construal level theory. Leading is 
the difference between positioning product benefits as more abstract, and more socially and 
temporarily removed (leading to socially driven choice) compared to products positioned as concrete, 
here and now (leading choice resulting in immediate and personal gratification).  
3) A second research project on consistency theory. Although there is a difference between attitude and 
behaviour, it is unlikely that consumers willingly exhibit inconsistent behaviour. This implies that at 
the moment of unsustainable behaviour, the sustainable attitude is not active in the mind of 
consumers.  
 
Results 
1) The symposium: The setting of a small scale symposium around a common application (sustainability) 
was a first to many of the disciplinary scientists. The drive for (social) scientist to produce the own, 
specific approach and theories, conceals there are in fact many similarities between different theories. 
This thematic conference allowed scientists to see outside the box and consider similarities rather 
than differences. This resulted in a positive atmosphere and engaged discussions. 
However, transferring the specialist knowledge to practice was not achieved, as the scientists 
remained largely focused on their own topics. The need to create liaisons between fundamental 
science and application was thus underlined. The composition and response of the audience gave 
some pointers to who might take up this role. Most suited appear to be institutes for applied science 
(DLO, TNO etc.), governments, intermediaries, and consultants. Additionally a role for universities of 
 
 
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applied sciences (HBO) may be in this field. The flow of cutting edge fundamental knowledge to 
people in these fields is often insufficient.  
2) Within the construal level study, a series of experiments has been conducted. The studies showed 
counterintuitive findings. We expected that (abstract) sustainable benefits would be linked to long 
term preference, while (concrete) taste benefits would be linked to immediate choice. Participants, 
however, especially showed a low preference for taste based purchase in the immediate future. This 
effects was found among students in Wageningen in 3 consecutive studies. In depth discussion 
among several involved researchers has come up with a possible explanation that the participants 
(Wageningen students) maybe heavily involved with sustainability, making sustainable choice a 
concrete and immediate issue for this segment in the population. Follow up studies (to be conducted 
outside Wageningen and measuring involvement) will have to shed light on this. This study suggests 
that the specific context and personality characteristics in which interpretation of abstract versus 
concrete gains may differ between participant groups, which would support a segmentation 
approach to the sustainable market. 
3) Consistency theory experiments showed that activation of pro environmental attitudes leads to more 
sustainable behaviour in practice. When you are actively considering sustainability, non-sustainable 
behaviour is inconsistent. Activation of pro sustainability attitude was achieved by two different 
sentences: “Do you like it when chicken have free roaming space” versus (neutral) “Do you like it 
when the sun is shining”. This has been tested in 2 studies. In a first study an online shop was 
simulated. Before the shopping task, participants were asked to answer questions in which for some 
participants sustainability related questions were given and for others neutral; after which a choice 
task among sustainable and non-sustainable options was done. In the second study similar sentences 
were presented on paper placemats placed on trays in the university cafeteria, where some placemats 
had the sustainable sentence and others the neutral. The amount of organic products actually bought, 
depending on placemat was tested. In both studies, the activation of sustainable attitudes resulted in 
more choice for sustainable products. 
 
 
Meaning for TransForum  
Considering the sustainable consumer as a rational actor is not the way forward. Segmentation, activation of 
positive attitudes and the implementation of a host of insights in environmental, evolutionary and mental 
processes that balance different mind-sets of consumers gives better predictions of actual consumer 
behaviour.  
 
Implications for Metropolitan agriculture 
Metropolitan agriculture presents a pallet of different approaches to sustainable development in the agri 
sector. Aligning different initiatives with different consumer group will strengthen this approach.  
By its emphasis on the agri sector as a shared resource for recreation of city-dwellers, metropolitan agriculture 
has a prime position to work on cues strengthening sustainable consumer behaviour. However, these cues are 
likely to work at an unconscious level of subtle cues, so information alone is expected to have limited impact. 
 
 
Implications for connected value development 
People adopt different roles in their life. At work, one maybe a conscientious scientist, at home the same 
person maybe a hedonistic consumer. These “multiple” selves imply that we should consider the role, context 
and position a person is in to determine the relevant values. It also implies that these roles may not always be 
the same. During shared value development it is therefore essential to tune the situation in the discussion to 
the envisaged final outcome, as mistuning may result in some partners adopting different roles, and thus 
different value sets in later stages of the project. 
 
 
 
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Implications for Knowledge infrastructure 
The symposium showed that fundamental (social) science is making progress but is not aligned to solve the 
large and wicked problems in practice.  
First of all, each researcher had his/her own version of key drivers and a generally accepted model or 
terminology was absent, making robust application nigh impossible. Secondly (and related) each researcher 
has specified his/her own small area, which may shed light on some of the effects but does not easily add up 
to the larger scale issues present in practice. In that way, this project provided an example of classical scientific 
approaches.  
 
However, some observations may give a direction to the future. First of all, there was appreciation from 
practice for the complexity of seemingly simple problems, and the practice community got insight into 
“science in action” communicating a lot about the limits of classical science.  
Secondly, applied scientists (e.g. from DLO’s) were very enthusiastic as this symposium allowed them an in 
depth update and discussion from leading theorists in the field. In conclusion, organising relays between 
science and practice could benefit from the applied sciences being the “interpreter”. This means that changes 
in the institutional context are needed to allow applied sciences to be organised in such a way they keep in 
touch with leading theories, while at the same time applying their findings in practice. The role of research 
institutes and HBO (professional colleges) might be ideally suited for this type of bridging function. 
 
 
 


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