“It’s Not Easy Living a Sustainable Lifestyle”: How Greater Knowledge Leads to Dilemmas, Tensions and Paralysis

Cristina Longo (), Avi Shankar () and Peter Nuttall ()
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Cristina Longo: Université de Lille - SKEMA Business School, MERCUR Research Center
Avi Shankar: University of Bath
Peter Nuttall: University of Bath

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 154, issue 3, No 10, 759-779

Abstract: Abstract Providing people with information is considered an important first step in encouraging them to behave sustainably as it influences their consumption beliefs, attitudes and intentions. However, too much information can also complicate these processes and negatively affect behaviour. This is exacerbated when people have accepted the need to live a more sustainable lifestyle and attempt to enact its principles. Drawing on interview data with people committed to sustainability, we identify the contentious role of knowledge in further disrupting sustainable consumption ideals. Here, knowledge is more than just information; it is familiarity and expertise (or lack of it) or how information is acted upon. We find that more knowledge represents a source of dilemma, tension and paralysis. Our data reveal a dark side to people’s knowledge, leading to a ‘self-inflicted sustainable consumption paradox’ in their attempts to lead a sustainable consumption lifestyle. Implications for policy interventions are discussed.

Keywords: Actual behavioural control; Attitude-behaviour inconsistencies; Barriers to sustainability; Consumer compromises; Consumer knowledge; Sustainable consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3422-1

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