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Motivating Sustainable Consumption: Insights from Self-Concept Theory

This research explores effective methods to motivate consumers towards sustainable consumption, focusing on self-concept perspectives. It evaluates current practices such as financial incentives and awareness campaigns, challenging the assumption that consumers act solely out of short-term self-interest. The study emphasizes the importance of self-image and values in consumer behavior, particularly in the context of electric vehicle adoption. Insights reveal that traditional motivations may be misguided, urging marketers to consider deeper psychological factors like self-concept and status to drive sustainable choices.

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Motivating Sustainable Consumption: Insights from Self-Concept Theory

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  1. Sustainable consumption: a self-concept perspective Jan Willem Bolderdijk Department of Marketing University of Groningen

  2. How to motivate consumers? • Current practice: • Financial incentives (energy taxes, discounts, subsidies) • Raising awareness (warnings, labels, campaigns)

  3. Assumptions • Consumers (only) act in their short-term self-interest • Campaigns should explicate monetary benefits of sustainable consumption

  4. Self-concept maintenance • People balance self-interest with self-image concerns (Mazar & Zhong, 2008)

  5. Field experiment

  6. (Bolderdijk, Steg, Geller, Lehman & Postmes, Nature Climate Change, 2012)

  7. Awareness campaigns Assumption ‘Information gap’ Information => knowledge/awareness => change Literature Cognitive dissonance Values

  8. Effect of environmental information (Bolderdijk, Gorsira, Keizer & Steg, submitted)

  9. Electric vehicles

  10. Marketing electric vehicles • Assumption: Limited uptake due to range anxiety • Strategy: Downplay/counteract functional downsides • Self-concept motive: early adopters buy EV for symbolic function • Costly-signalling (e.g. Griskevicius et al, 2010) • Functional downsides need not prohibit uptake

  11. Q1: How important are these attributes when buying an electric car?

  12. Beliefs attributes electric car Instrumental (M = 3.8, SD = 0.8) Β’s: n.s. Buying Intention .28 Environmental (M = 5.2, SD = 1.0) .29 Symbolic (M = 2.7, SD = 1.1) (Noppers, Keizer, Bolderdijk & Steg, submitted) Q2: Rate a “typical electric car” on these attributes

  13. Conclusion • Current assumptions on how to motivate consumers may be misguided • Motivation • Look beyond the usual suspects, and consider: • Self-concept • Values • Status

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