Overcoming hurdles to the diffusion of environmentally sustainable behaviour

The need for action on tackling climate change has reached a make-or-break moment: we can only deliver on the commitments made in the Paris Agreement if we act now.

Given the importance of consumer behaviour in addressing climate change and the urgency for action, accelerating the growth in the adoption of green practices is critical if Europe is to become a climate neutral continent by 2050.

However, while the availability and consumption of sustainable product and service options has been growing, the diffusion of these sustainable practices in society has been slow, showing that early adoption of sustainable consumption practices does not sufficiently generalize to similar practices or other consumers.

The overarching objective of this project is to study why instances of environmentally sustainable behaviour does not always invite more instances of such behaviour.

I will study the hurdles first at the intrapersonal level by looking at downstream consequences of perceptual biases and testing intrapersonal consistency across different consumer domains.

Then I will move to the interpersonal level, studying barriers that might prevent consumers from following or mimicking the green behaviour of others. At both levels I will test a number of theoretically justifiable remedies and nudges to correct for these biases.

The project findings will provide valuable input in defining policy and strategies to encourage environmentally sustainable consumption and will help consumers in interpreting eco-information and understanding the effects of biases on their own consumer behaviour.