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SDRN briefing one Introduction This briefing summarises the key messages from Motivating Sustainable Consumption, the first of an ongoing series of rapid reviews undertaken by the Sustainable Development Research Network (SDRN) in order to improve the use of existing research and evidence in policymaking. The review was undertaken by Professor Tim Jackson, of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey. It addresses the following three pressing policy questions. What does research tell us about: . the factors that motivate, shape and constrain the behaviour of 'mainstream' household consumers? . the factors that motivate, shape or constrain pro- environmental and pro-social household consumer behaviours? . achieving pro-environmental or pro-social change in mainstream household consumer behaviours? The review aims to assess the scope, nature and robustness of the research within each of these areas and to identify gaps within that evidence base. As such the review has helped to inform the development of the new UK Sustainable Development Strategy, and offers some important insights into how to improve the design of policies to promote more sustainable consumption. Motivating Sustainable Consumption Tim Jackson SDRN briefing one

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Page 1: Motivating Sustainable Consumption - Home | SDRN · 2014-11-03 · Motivating Sustainable Consumption, ... Consumer behaviour is key to the impact that society ... importance of community-based

SDRN briefing one

Introduction

This briefing summarises the key messages fromMotivating Sustainable Consumption, the first of anongoing series of rapid reviews undertaken by theSustainable Development Research Network (SDRN) inorder to improve the use of existing research andevidence in policymaking.

The review was undertaken by Professor Tim Jackson,of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at theUniversity of Surrey. It addresses the following threepressing policy questions.

What does research tell us about:

.the factors that motivate, shape and constrain thebehaviour of 'mainstream' household consumers?

.the factors that motivate, shape or constrain pro-environmental and pro-social household consumerbehaviours?

. achieving pro-environmental or pro-social change inmainstream household consumer behaviours?

The review aims to assess the scope, nature androbustness of the research within each of these areasand to identify gaps within that evidence base. Assuch the review has helped to inform the developmentof the new UK Sustainable Development Strategy, andoffers some important insights into how to improvethe design of policies to promote more sustainableconsumption.

MotivatingSustainable

Consumption

Tim Jackson

SDRN briefing one

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Overview

Consumer behaviour is key to the impact that societyhas on the environment. The actions that people takeand choices they make - to consume certain productsand services or to live in certain ways rather thanothers - all have direct and indirect impacts on theenvironment, as well as on personal (and collective)well-being. This is why the topic of 'sustainableconsumption' has become a central focus for nationaland international policy.

Why do we consume in the ways that we do? Whatfactors shape and constrain our choices and actions?Why (and when) do people behave in pro-environmental or pro-social ways? And how can weencourage, motivate and facilitate more sustainableattitudes, behaviours and lifestyles?

Motivating Sustainable Consumption sets out toaddress these questions. It reviews the literature onconsumer behaviour and behavioural change. Itdiscusses the evidence base for different models ofchange. It also highlights the dilemmas andopportunities that policy-makers face in addressingunsustainable consumption patterns and encouragingmore sustainable lifestyles.

Changing behaviours - and in particular motivatingmore sustainable behaviours - is far fromstraightforward. Individual behaviours are deeplyembedded in social and institutional contexts. We areguided as much by what others around us say and do,and by the 'rules of the game' as we are by personalchoice. We often find ourselves 'locked in' tounsustainable behaviours in spite of our own bestintentions.

In these circumstances, the rhetoric of 'consumersovereignty' and 'hands-off' governance is inaccurateand unhelpful. Policy-makers are not innocentbystanders in the negotiation of consumer choice.Policy intervenes continually in consumer behaviourboth directly (e.g. through regulation and taxes) andmore importantly through its extensive influence overthe social context within which people act. Thisinsight offers a far more creative vista for policyinnovation than has hitherto been recognised.

A concerted strategy is needed to make it easy tobehave more sustainably: ensuring that incentivestructures and institutional rules favour sustainablebehaviour, enabling access to pro-environmentalchoice, engaging people in initiatives to helpthemselves, and exemplifying the desired changeswithin Government's own policies and practices.

‘A concerted strategy is

needed to make it easy

to behave more

sustainably: ensuring

that incentive

structures and

institutional rules

favour sustainable

behaviour, enabling

access to pro-

environmental choice,

engaging people in

initiatives to help

themselves, and

exemplifying the

desired changes within

Government's own

policies and practices.’

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The Vanguard of History - getting to grips with complexity

'An individual's main objective in consumption is tohelp create the social world and to find a credibleplace in it.' 1

Consumption has been construed as the 'vanguard ofhistory'.2 Our consumption patterns offer a complex,yet telling picture of the kind of society we havebecome and of our relationship to material goods.Getting to grips with the forces that drive consumerbehaviour is challenging. But two or three key lessonsemerge from the vast literature on modernconsumption.

One of these is the huge variety of different roles thatconsumer goods play in modern society. Consumptionsatisfies our functional needs for food, housing,transport and so on. But material artefacts also playimportant symbolic roles in our lives. A wedding dress,a new sports car, a child's first teddy bear, the coloursof my favourite team: these examples illustrate theimportant social and psychological roles that weassign to material things. This symbolic role ofconsumer goods allows us to engage in vital 'socialconversations' about status, identity, social cohesion,and the pursuit of personal and cultural meaning - inshort: to create the social world.

Another hugely important lesson from the literature isthat, far from being able to exercise free choiceabout what to consume and what not to consume,people often find themselves locked in tounsustainable consumption patterns. 'Lock-in' occurs inpart through 'perverse' incentive structures - economicconstraints, institutional barriers, or inequalities inaccess that actively encourage unsustainablebehaviours. It also flows from social expectations andcultural norms. Sometimes we act unsustainably out ofsheer habit. Sometimes we do so because that's whateveryone else does.

These lessons emphasise the difficulty associated withnegotiating sustainable consumption patterns. Theyalso highlight the need for policy to understand andfind ways to influence the social context of consumeraction.

Correcting 'Market Failure' - the conventional policy response

Conventional responses to environmental or consumerpolicy tend to be based on a particular model of theway that choices are made. This 'rational choice'model contends that consumers make decisions bycalculating the individual costs and benefits ofdifferent courses of action and then choosing theoption that maximises their expected net benefits. Ifit is cheaper for me to travel from A to B by train thanby car, I will usually choose to go by train. If it ismore costly and time-consuming for me to recycle myhousehold waste than to throw it in the trash, I willtend to do the latter.

There is a familiar and appealing logic to this model.Faced with two clear choices, different in cost butequal in all other respects, it is in my own self-interest to choose the less expensive one. From thisperspective, the role of policy appears to bestraightforward, namely to ensure that the marketallows people to make efficient choices about theirown actions.

For the most part, this has been seen as the need tocorrect for 'market failures' (Figure 1). These failuresoccur, for example, if consumers have insufficientinformation to make proper choices. Policy shouldtherefore seek to improve access to information. Inaddition, private decisions do not always take accountof social costs. Policy intervention is therefore neededto 'internalise' these external costs and make themmore 'visible' to private choice.

Social costs and benefits

Information

Consumer Behaviour

Tastes and preferences

Private costs and benefits

Taxes and incentives

Social costs and benefits

InformationInformation

Consumer Behaviour

Tastes and preferences

Private costs and benefits

Consumer Behaviour

Tastes and preferences

Private costs and benefits

Taxes and incentivesTaxes and incentives

Figure 1: The ‘Market Failure’ Model of Consumer Policy

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SDRN briefing one

Unfortunately, policies based on information and pricesignals have had only limited success in changingunsustainable behaviours. Persuasion is particularlydifficult in a message-dense environment. In oneextreme case, a California utility spent more moneyon advertising the benefits of home insulation than itwould have cost to install the insulation itself in thetargeted homes.3 Price signals too are ofteninsufficient to overcome the barriers to moresustainable behaviour. Many energy saving measures -energy efficient lightbulbs, for example - are alreadycost-effective to consumers, and yet are often nottaken up.

Beyond 'Market Failure' - the limits of rational choice

'The heart has reasons that reason does not knowat all.'4

Consumer actions are not always so straightforward asthe rational choice model suggests. We do not alwaysdeliberate carefully over costs and benefits. We donot always act in our own self-interest. Individualchoice is continually tempered by social constraints.And sometimes we just don't deliberate at all, actingthrough instinct, emotion or habit, rather than reason.

Expectancy-value5 theories (like rational choice)suggest that behaviours flow from our attitudes. Butall too often there is a yawning gap between attitudes(for example our concern for the environment) andbehaviour (for instance our willingness to travel lessby car). This 'value-action gap' suggests thatsustainable consumption policy must do more thantackle attitudes and hope that behavioural change willfollow.

Some behaviour changes appear not to be mediatedby attitudes at all. People may recycle simply as aresult of changes in municipal waste collectionservices, without ever having decided that 'recycling isa good thing'. But once recycling, people may inferfrom this that they are (to some extent) 'green' andbegin to have pro-environmental attitudes. Thepossibility that this 'new' attitude will spill over6 intoother behaviours is an intriguing one and hasimportant implications for motivating sustainableconsumption. It suggests that behaviours can bechanged without necessarily changing attitudes first.

At any rate, what is clear - both from the failings ofrational choice theory and from the limited success ofconventional policy in changing behaviours - is thatmore attention needs to be paid to the underlyingstructure of both behaviours and motivations.

The Matter of Habit - making life easier (and more difficult)

'Habit is thus the enormous flywheel of society, itsmost precious conservative agent.'7

Habit plays a vital role in our lives. It is also one ofthe most difficult issues for policy-makers. Rationalchoice models assume that behaviour is based oncognitive deliberation. But many of our everydayactions are carried out with very little consciousthought at all. How often, for example, do we ponderwhere to throw our waste paper, whether or not todrive to work, or even which brands to buy in thesupermarket?

For the most part, we use a variety of mental 'short-cuts' - habits, cues, heuristics - to simplify routinechoices. It is often only when circumstances disruptour routines - when someone moves the waste bin inthe kitchen, say - that conscious deliberation entersthe picture. Now I have to search consciously for thebin. I may find myself reaching instinctively for theold location, even several weeks later.

This example illustrates both the good and the badaspects of habitual behaviour. On the one hand, habitmakes it possible to function efficiently and frees upcognitive effort for more important tasks - like writing(or reading) reviews on sustainable consumption. In anincreasingly hectic world, this is a useful ability. Butthe process of habituation makes our everydaybehaviours less visible to conscious deliberation, lessamenable to policy intervention, and more difficult tochange when they are no longer appropriate.

It is important for policy to find ways of re-negotiatinghabits. This looks challenging. But like many socialand psychological processes, habit formation has itsown rules and dynamics. For instance, a vitalingredient for changing habits is to 'unfreeze' existingbehaviour - to raise the behaviour from the level of'practical' to 'discursive' consciousness (see below).This process is known to be most effective when it iscarried out within a supportive community. Theimportance of community-based social change is a keylesson from this review.

Redefining Normal - the role of social and moral norms

'Norms can take the form of explicit rules... orthey can be the implicit, unobserved, taken-for-granted background to everyday life.'8

Our everyday behaviour is guided by two kinds ofsocial norms. 'Descriptive norms' teach us how mostpeople around us behave. They allow us moderate our

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own behaviour. I know what kind of clothes to wearand when to put out my recycling partly by observingcontinually what others around me do. 'Injunctivenorms' alert us to what is sanctioned or punished insociety. Driving outside the speed limit, polluting thewater supply and (perhaps) failing to separate ourrecyclables from the rubbish are all examples ofbehaviours which carry varying degrees of moralsanction.

In both cases, there is lot at stake. Our ability toobserve social norms influences the way we areperceived in our peer group and is important to ourpersonal success. My ability to find a mate, keep myfriends and stay in a good job are all mediated by mysuccess in following social norms. Descriptive andinjunctive norms can sometimes point in oppositedirections. Most people agree that breaking the speedlimit is wrong; but many people do it. The same istrue for other environmentally unsustainablebehaviours.

Pro-environmental behaviours are not alwaysmotivated by altruistic concerns. Some can bemotivated entirely by self-serving interests. But a partof the case for pro-environmental behaviour is a moralone. The environmental impacts of my actions heretoday are as likely (or perhaps more likely) to fall onother people at some other time and place as they areto fall directly on me. Understanding moral action istherefore crucial.

Expectancy-value theories struggle to elucidate moralbehaviours because of underlying assumptions aboutindividuality and self-interest. But useful models doexist. Schwartz's 'Norm Activation' theory suggests thatmy intention to behave in pro-social ways is higherwhen a) I am aware of the consequences of myactions and b) I assume responsibility for them.9 If Iam aware of the consequences of fuel consumptionfor the problem of climate change and prepared toaccept that I have some responsibility for my ownfuel-consuming behaviour, then I am more likely todevelop a personal norm to reduce my fuelconsumption.

These insights reinforce the idea that awareness initself is not enough to foster pro-environmentalbehaviour. Mechanisms for promoting responsibility(commitments, quotas, targets eg) are also vital. Atone level, pro-environmental behavioural change canbe thought of as a transition in social norms. Betterunderstanding of the evolution of social norms canonly enhance environmental policy.

Self and Society - the importance of sociality

'No hard and fast lines can be drawn between ourown selves and the selves of others.'10

We are fundamentally social creatures. We learn byexample and model our behaviours on those we seearound us. We learn most effectively from those whoare attractive to us or influential for us, or frompeople who are simply 'like us'. Sometimes we learnby counter-example. And we learn not to trust peoplewho tell us one thing and do another.

Some social theories suggest that our behaviours, ourattitudes, and even our concepts of self are (at best)socially constructed and (at worst) helplessly mired ina complex 'social logic'. Social identity theory, forexample, regards key aspects of our behaviour asbeing motivated by the particular social groups thatwe belong to. Certain behaviours are more or lessruled in or ruled out for me, simply because I perceivemyself as belonging to a particular social group. Theroots of these 'normal behaviours' have very little todo with individual choice.

How does Government policy respond to thiscomplexity? Cultural theory11 suggests that therelationship between self and society is mediated bythe particular form that social organisation takeswithin a given society. Historically there have beenonly four main types of social organisation:hierarchical, individualist, communitarian and fatalist.Each of these cultural forms has a different view ofnature and a different view of how social andenvironmental goals should be achieved.

The dominant cultural model in 21st Century society isindividualist. But this is only one form of socialorganisation and there is evidence to suggest that itmay not be sufficient to address the social complexityof pro-environmental behavioural change. Individualchange is often not feasible and usually insufficient.Policy-making for sustainable consumption needs toadopt a sophisticated and pluralistic approach topolicy mechanisms.

Towards a Synthesis - the components of social action

A grand unified theory of human behaviour is probablyimpossible. But a pragmatic synthesis is a usefulstarting point for policy design. Triandis' early theoryof interpersonal behaviour (Figure 2)12 provides a goodillustration of such a synthesis. A more complicatedsocial-psychological model along the same lines hasbeen developed by Bagozzi and his colleagues.13

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In summary, my behaviour in any particular situation isa function partly of my attitudes and intentions,partly of my habitual responses, and partly of thesituational constraints and conditions under which Ioperate. My intentions in their turn are influenced bysocial, normative and affective factors as well as byrational deliberations. I am neither fully deliberativenor fully automatic in this view. I am neither fullyautonomous nor entirely social. My behaviours areinfluenced by my moral beliefs, but the impact ofthese is moderated both by my emotional drives andmy cognitive limitations.

The question of whether consumers are free to makechoices about their own actions or whether they arebound by forces outside their control has provoked along debate in the social sciences. This debate - aboutthe relative influence of human agency and socialstructure - culminated in the development of Giddens''structuration theory' which attempts to show howagency and structure relate to each other.14

Giddens' work provides the basis for a view ofconsumption as a set of social practices (Figure 3),

influenced on the one hand by lifestyle choices and onthe other by the institutions and structures of society.Giddens' model proposes a key distinction between'practical' and 'discursive' consciousness. Mosteveryday, routine action is performed in practicalconsciousness. But intentional or goal-oriented changerequires us to raise the issues into 'discursive'consciousness - a level where issues are thought aboutand discussed with others. This process is vital tosustainable behaviour change and has been shown towork. Global Action Plan adopts this strategy in itsEcoteam programme, for example.15

Framing the Options - complexity and opportunity

Looking through the lens of consumer behaviourreveals a complex and outwardly intractable policyterrain. People are attached to material consumptionin a wide variety of ways, some of them functional,some symbolic. They are often locked in tounsustainable patterns through a complex mixture offactors some of them institutional, some of themsocial or psychological.

SDRN briefing one

Behaviour

Intention

Attitude

Beliefs about outcomes

Evaluation of outcomes

Habits

Facilitating Conditions

Emotions Affect

Social factors

Norms

Roles

Self-concept

Frequency of past behaviour

Behaviour

Intention

Attitude

Beliefs about outcomes

Evaluation of outcomes

Habits

Facilitating Conditions

Emotions Affect

Social factors

Norms

Roles

Self-concept

Frequency of past behaviour

Figure 2: Triandis’ Theory ofInterpersonal Behaviour

Life

styl

es

Rules and resources

System

s of Provision

Discursive and practical

consciousness

Cooking

Lighting

Showering

Socialising

etc..

Life

styl

es

Rules and resources

System

s of Provision

Discursive and practical

consciousness

Cooking

Lighting

Showering

Socialising

etc..Figure 3: Consumption as social practice16

Actors Human Action Social Practices Structures

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The rhetoric of 'consumer sovereignty' and 'hands-off'governance does not help much here because itregards choice as individualistic and fails to unravelthe social, psychological and institutional influenceson private behaviours. Some behaviours are motivatedby rational, self-interested, and individualisticconcerns. But conventional responses neither dojustice to the complexity of consumer behaviour norexhaust the possibilities for policy intervention inpursuit of behavioural change.

It is clear that achieving pro-environmental behaviourchange demands a more sophisticated policyapproach. A concerted strategy is needed to makebehaviour change easy: ensuring that incentivestructures and institutional rules favour pro-environmental behaviour, enabling access to pro-environmental choice, engaging people in initiativesto help themselves, and exemplifying the desiredchanges within Government's own policies andpractices.

A Concerted Approach - addressing the social context

Most importantly, the evidence suggests that policyplays a vital role in shaping the social context withinwhich we act. Governments influence and co-createthe culture of consumption in a variety of ways. Insome cases, this influence proceeds through specificinterventions - such as the imposition of regulatoryand fiscal structures. In other cases it proceedsthrough the absence of such interventions. Most oftenit is a combination of both.

Government must facilitate external conditions thatfavour sustainable behaviour. Time and again theevidence suggests that situational factors hinder pro-environmental or pro-social choice. Absence ofconvenient recycling infrastructure, unreliability ofpublic transport, lack of availability of energy-savinglights or appliances: these all have the potential todisrupt the best intentions of even the most well-motivated consumers.

The social context of environmentally significantbehaviour is framed by a wide range of policyinstitutions. The regulatory framework, the structureof the market, planning law, product standards,trading standards, marketing standards, family law,distribution policy and so on: the detailed design ofthese institutions has enormous potential to drive orto hinder pro-environmental change.

A key lesson from this review is the importance ofcommunity based social change. Individual behavioursare shaped and constrained by social norms andexpectations. Negotiating change is best pursued at

the level of groups and communities. Social support isparticularly vital in breaking habits and in devisingnew social norms. Government can play a vital role ininitiating and nurturing community-based initiatives.

There are at least four good reasons for Governmentto practice what it preaches on sustainableconsumption. Firstly, public sector consumptionconstitutes a significant proportion of totalconsumption. Secondly, procurement practices canplay a key role in stimulating markets for sustainableproducts and services. Thirdly, the process of changingbehaviour across Whitehall provides invaluable lessonsto policy-makers about what is involved.

Finally, Government policies and practices sendimportant signals to people about public priorities,and social and cultural preferences. Unfavourable orinconsistent policy signals can undermine the bestefforts of Government to motivate sustainableconsumption.

Concluding Remarks

The complexity of consumer behaviours should warnus against simplistic prescriptions for change.Material goods and services are deeply embedded inthe cultural fabric of our lives. Through them we notonly satisfy our needs and desires, we alsocommunicate with each other, negotiate importantsocial relationships, and pursue personal and culturalmeaning.

Motivating sustainable consumption has to be as muchabout building supportive communities, promotinginclusive societies, providing meaningful work andencouraging purposeful lives as it does aboutawareness-raising, fiscal policy or persuasion.

But this is not to suggest that Government should befaint-hearted in encouraging and supporting pro-environmental behaviour. On the contrary, a robusteffort is clearly needed; and the evidence reviewed inthis study offers a far more creative vista for policyinnovation than has hitherto been recognised.

Notes

1. Douglas, M 1976. 'Relative Poverty, RelativeCommunication', in Halsey, A. (ed), Traditions ofSocial Policy, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

2. Miller, Daniel ed. 1995. AcknowledgingConsumption - a review of new studies, London andNew York: Routledge.

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3. Cited in McKenzie Mohr D 2000. PromotingSustainable Behavior: an introduction to community-based social marketing. Journal of Social Issues 56(3),543-554.

4. Pascal, B 1670. Pensées. Reprinted 1966 PenguinClassics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

5. In this kind of theory, choices are made on thebasis of the expected outcomes from a choice and thevalue attached to those outcomes. A range of'adjusted' expectancy-value models uses this basicidea to go beyond rational choice and unravelexplicitly the psychological antecedents of consumerpreferences. The most famous is Azjen and Fishbein's'Theory of Reasoned Action' which models behaviour asa function of both our own expectations and attitudesand our perceptions of what others think.

6. Thøgersen, J and F Ölander 2003. Spillover ofEnvironment-Friendly Consumer Behaviour. Journal ofEnvironmental Psychology 23, 225-236.

7. James, W 1890. Principles of Psychology. Mineola,NY: Dover Publications.

8. Hogg, M and Vaughan G 2002. Social Psychology -3rd Edition. Harlow, Essex: Prentice Hall.

9. Schwartz, S 1977. Normative Influences onAltruism, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology10, 222-279.

10. Mead, G 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Reprinted1962. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

11. Thompson, M, R Ellis and A Wildavsky 1990.Cultural Theory. Oxford: West View.

12. Triandis, H 1977. Interpersonal Behaviour.Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.

13. Bagozzi, R, Z Gürnao-Canli and J Priester 2002.The Social Psychology of Consumer Behaviour.Buckingham: Open University Press.

14. Giddens, A 1984. The Constitution of Society -outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley andLos Angeles: University of California Press.

15. http://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/index.cfm

16. Adapted from Spaargaren, G and B van Vliet2000. Lifestyle, Consumption and the Environment:the ecological modernisation of domesticconsumption. Society and Natural Resources 9, 50-76.

SDRN briefing one

The Sustainable DevelopmentResearch Network

…contributing to sustainable development in theUnited Kingdom by facilitating better use ofevidence and research in policymaking.

The SDRN is a Defra funded initiative, coordinatedby the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in London.Membership of the SDRN if free, and open to allthose with a professional interest in sustainabledevelopment research and policy issues. To find outmore about the SDRN or to join the Network, visit:

http://www.sd-research.org.uk/

For details of the full review see:

Motivating Sustainable Consumption: a review ofevidence on consumer behaviour and behaviouralchange. A report to the SDRN by Professor TimJackson, January 2005. Available at:www.sd-research.org.uk/researchreviews/documents/MotivatingSCfinal.pdf

Professor Jackson currently holds a ResearchFellowship from the ESRC's Sustainable TechnologyProgramme.