Social influence on sustainable consumption: evidence from a behavioural experiment

Abstract

Although social influence on consumers’ behaviour has been recognized and documented, the vast majority of empirical consumer studies about sustainable products considers mainly, if not only, individual characteristics (socio‐demographic attributes, individual environmental attitudes, etc.), to explain the decision to buy sustainable products. Making use of experimental methods, this paper studies the social influence that peer groups like colleagues, family and friends may exert in the decision to choose for environmentally friendly products rather than conventional ones. We also test for different types of social influence, in particular for ‘herd behaviour’ vs. ‘social learning’. In our experimental setting, the relevance of peer effects is corroborated. We find clear evidence for ‘herd behaviour’ and the data indirectly support the presence of ‘social learning’ effects. The results also suggest heterogeneous impact of specific social groups.

Promoting residential renewable energy via peer-to-peer learning

“…Peer-to-peer learning has gained interest in a sustainability context (Abrahamse & Steg, 2013;de Vreede, Warner, & Pitter, 2014;Goldsmith & Goldsmith, 2011;Salazar, Oerlemans, & van Stroe-Biezen, 2013). This interest draws on Roger's (1962Roger's ( /2003 work on diffusion of innovations, where learning via social networks is expected to reduce uncertainty and offer social support for the adoption of new practices (McKenzie-Mohr & Schultz, 2014).…”

Fostering Sustainable Nutrition Behavior through Gamification

“…Several studies exist which explore the impact of reference group proximity in different sustainability-related contexts, such as consumption of sustainable products [59], littering [50], or exercise and healthy diet behavior [60], but there is no study of norm messages incorporating reference group information in the context of sustainable nutrition.…”

Household norms and their role in reducing household electricity consumption

“…Indeed, Salazar et al . () argue that research that overlooks the impact of this interaction can underestimate its impact on consumer decisions. It is this interaction between the members of a household in the collective consumption of a product that is the focus of this research.…”

“…This is especially so in the context of electricity consumption where ‘In households with more than one person, electricity consumption is a function of all household members' behaviour and of their interaction’ (Grønhøj and Thøgersen, , p. 144). As such ‘people's choices may differ from ones they may have made in isolation’ (Salazar et al ., , p. 174). Researchers have begun to investigate the interactions of household members in efficiency decisions from a number of different theoretical angles.…”