Do What Consumers Say Matter? The Misalignment of Preferences with Unconstrained Ethical Intentions

Abstract

ethical product features, willingness-to-pay, survey methods,

Recycling today, sustainability tomorrow: Effects of psychological distance on behavioural practice

“…We consider this pertinent as it allowed discrepancies between self-reported and actual behaviour to be revealed through observation and explored through interviews. This was helpful in reducing social desirability impacts which have been reported in ethical/sustainable consumption contexts (e.g., Auger & Devinney, 2007). An exploration of actual behaviour as experienced by consumers in the context of their everyday lives was pertinent in revealing the barriers and challenges to behaviour which may not readily occur in choice modelling research or experimental research where behaviours may not be experiential to participants.…”

“…This research has, however, been limited to the exploration of temporal distance (Agerström & Björklund, 2009a;Agerström et al, 2012;Fessel, 2011), social distance (Agerström et al, 2012), moral dilemmas (Agerström & Björklund, 2009a;Agerström et al, 2012), anticipated (Agerström & Björklund, 2009a or self-reported behaviour (Fessel, 2011). Furthermore, research has highlighted the potential social bias in self reported environmental behaviour (e.g., Auger & Devinney, 2007;Beckmann, 2005). Our aim is to consider each of the dimensions of psychological distance as potentially important to sustainable and recycling behaviours (e.g., it happens in a social context, outcomes can be uncertain and we make a choice whether to engage in the behaviour now or perhaps sometime in the future).…”

“…This allows the exploration of actual construal experienced in relation to recycling behaviour and further goes beyond the exploration of intention as a proxy for behaviour as in many previous applications of the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour. Given the challenges identified in relation to selfreported behaviour (Auger & Devinney, 2007) and reports of an attitude-behaviour gap, such observations, coupled with interviews, will allow any challenges to enacting the behaviour to be more readily observed. This is important given the claim that with an increase in proximal distance individuals tend to move from idealised values to pragmatic concerns (Agerström & Björklund, 2009b), suggesting that such concerns may inhibit recycling and sustainable behaviours.…”

Neutralisation and Mental Accounting in Ethical Consumption: The Case of Sustainable Holidays

“…Yet, a broader shift in consumption behaviour is mitigated by the attitude-behaviour gap or due to inconsistency in behaviours [1][2][3][4][5]. These tendencies can be noticed in various areas of sustainable consumption, including holiday decision-making.…”

“…However, consumers often behave in ways that are inconsistent and incoherent to what they intend to do [4,51]. This is particularly obvious in the context of ethical consumption as exemplified by the attitude-behaviour gap [1].…”