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Sustainable consumption: a self-concept perspective

Jan Willem BolderdijkDepartment of MarketingUniversity of Groningen

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How to motivate consumers?› Current practice:

Financial incentives (energy taxes, discounts, subsidies) Raising awareness (warnings, labels, campaigns)

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Assumptions› Consumers (only) act in their short-term self-interest

Campaigns should explicate monetary benefits of sustainable consumption

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Self-concept maintenance

People balance self-interest with self-image concerns (Mazar & Zhong, 2008)

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Field experiment

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

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Awareness campaigns› Assumption

‘Information gap’ Information => knowledge/awareness => change

› Literature Cognitive dissonance- Values

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Effect of environmental information11

(Bolderdijk, Gorsira, Keizer & Steg, submitted)

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Electric vehicles

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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

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

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Buying Intention

Beliefs attributes electric car

Instrumental(M = 3.8, SD = 0.8)

Environmental(M = 5.2, SD = 1.0)

Symbolic(M = 2.7, SD = 1.1)

n.s.

.28

.29

Β’s:

Q2: Rate a “typical electric car” on these attributes

(Noppers, Keizer, Bolderdijk & Steg, submitted)

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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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