Motivating Sustainable Consumption

........................................................................................................................ iii Executive Summary....................................................................................................... v Part 1 Framing the Debate ................................................................................ v Part 2 Models of Consumer Behaviour ........................................................... vi Part 3 Towards Behavioural Change ............................................................... xi PART 1: FRAMING THE DEBATE........................................................................ 1 1 Towards Sustainable Consumption Policy ............................................................ 3 1.1 The Challenge of Behavioural Change ...................................................... 3 1.2 The Challenge of Sustainable Consumption.............................................. 4 1.3 Terms of Reference for this Review.......................................................... 5 1.4 The Question of Evidence.......................................................................... 5 1.5 The Limitations of Systematic Review...................................................... 6 1.6 Overview of the Structure .......................................................................... 7 2 Consumption: the vanguard of history? ................................................................. 9 2.1 Consumption and Well-Being.................................................................... 9 2.2 Consumption and Needs .......................................................................... 10 2.3 Consumption and Desire .......................................................................... 11 2.4 Ordinary and Inconspicuous Consumption.............................................. 13 2.5 Consumption and Identity........................................................................ 13 2.6 The Symbolic Role of Consumer Goods ................................................. 14 2.7 Consumption as Social Conversation ...................................................... 15 2.8 Consumption and the Pursuit of Meaning ............................................... 16 2.9 Conclusions .............................................................................................. 17 PART 2: MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ........................................... 19 3 The Role of Models .............................................................................................. 21 4 Rational Choice.................................................................................................... 29 4.1 Consumer Preference Theory................................................................... 30 4.2 The Attribute (Lancaster) Model ............................................................. 31 4.3 Rational Choice in Non-Purchasing Behaviour ....................................... 32 5 Against Rational Choice ...................................................................................... 35 5.1 Bounded Rationality, Habit and Emotion................................................ 35 5.2 The Argument against Individualism....................................................... 37 5.3 The Moral Critique ................................................................................... 39 6 Adjusted Expectancy-Value Theory.................................................................... 43 6.1 Simple Expectancy-Value Attitude Theory............................................. 43 6.2 Means-End Chain Theory........................................................................ 44 Motivating Sustainable Consumption ii 6.3 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) .................................................. 46 6.4 The Theory of Planned Behaviour ........................................................... 48 7 Moral and Normative Conduct ............................................................................ 51 7.1 Ecological Value Theory ......................................................................... 52 7.2 Norm Activation Theory.......................................................................... 54 7.3 Stern’s Value Belief Norm Theory.......................................................... 56 7.4 The Focus Theory of Normative Conduct ............................................... 58 8 The Matter of Habit .............................................................................................. 63 8.1 Cognitive effort – control, automaticity and heuristics ........................... 64 8.2 The Role of Habit and Routine ................................................................ 65 8.3 Framing, Priming and Bias ...................................................................... 66 9 Sociality and Self ................................................................................................. 69 9.1 The Social-Symbolic Self ........................................................................ 70 9.2 The Project of Symbolic Self-Completion............................................... 73 9.3 Self-Concept, Cognitive Dissonance and Spillover ................................. 76 9.4 Self-Discrepancy Theory ......................................................................... 77 9.5 Social Identity Theory.............................................................................. 79 9.6 Cultural Theory........................................................................................ 84 10 Integrative Theories of Consumer Behaviour .................................................. 89 10.1 Structuration and Social Practices............................................................ 89 10.2 Stern’s Attitude-Behaviour-Context Model............................................. 92 10.3 Triandis’ Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour .......................................... 93 10.4 The Motivation-Opportunity-Abilities model.......................................... 95 10.5 Bagozzi’s Model of Consumer Action .................................................... 97 10.6 Summary Discussion ........................................................................... 99 PART 3: TOWARDS BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE ............................................ 103 11 Change, Persuasion and Learning.................................................................. 105 11.1 Persuasion Theory.................................................................................. 106 11.2 The Elaboration Likelihood Model........................................................ 107 11.3 Social Learning Theory.......................................................................... 109 11.4 Control, Helplessness and Participatory Problem Solving .................... 112 11.5 Breaking ‘Bad’ Habits ........................................................................... 114 11.6 Community-Based Social Marketing..................................................... 118 11.7 Summary Discussion ............................................................................. 119 12 Policy Options and Opportunities .................................................................. 121 12.1 Policy Options in Historical and Cultural Context ............................ 122 12.2 Policy Opportunities in Social and Institutional Context .................. 127 12. 3 Concluding Remarks.......................................................................... 132 References .................................................................................................................. 135 Motivating Sustainable Consumption