Sustainable Consumption Dilemmas

Kees Vringer, Eline van der Heijden, Daan van Soest, Herman R.J. Vollebergh and Frank Dietz
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Kees Vringer: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), 2594 AV The Hague, The Netherlands
Eline van der Heijden: Tilburg Sustainability Centre and Department of Economics, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
Frank Dietz: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), 2594 AV The Hague, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: To examine which considerations play a role when individuals make decisions to purchase sustainable product varieties or not, we have conducted a large scale field experiment with more than 600 participating households. Households can vote on whether the budgets they receive should only be spent on purchasing the sustainable product variety, or whether every household in a group is free to spend their budget on any product variety. By conducting several treatments, we tested whether people tend to view sustainable consumption as a social dilemma or as a moral dilemma. We find little support for the hypothesis that social dilemma considerations are the key drivers of sustainable consumption behaviour. Participants seem to be caught in a moral dilemma in which they not only weigh their individual financial costs with the sustainable benefits but they also consider the consequences of restricting other people’s freedom of choice. Complementary survey results further substantiate this claim and show that many people are reluctant to impose restrictions on their peers, but, at the same time, our results also suggest substantial support for the government to regulate the availability of unsustainable product varieties.

Keywords: sustainable consumption; field experiment; social dilemma; moral dilemma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Sustainable consumption dilemmas (2017)
Working Paper: Sustainable consumption dilemmas (2015)
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