The Influence of Environmental Self-Identity on the Relationship between Consumer Identities and Frugal Behavior

Abstract

The need to reduce consumption is evident, and a way of achieving this is through austerity and frugal practices. The aim of this research was to advance the understanding of frugal behavior and its relation to consumer identities, and to analyze any possible mediating effects of environmental self-identity. In Study 1 (n = 492), the factor structure of the consumer identities scale was tested and three distinct identities were defined: moral, wasteful, and thrifty consumer identities. In Study 2 (n = 500), the influence of consumer identities on frugal behavior was studied and the possible mediating effect of environmental self-identity was analyzed. Environmental self-identity completely mediated the relationship between moral identity and frugal behavior and partially mediated the relationships of both wasteful and thrifty identities with frugal behavior. The model was able to predict 27.6% of the variance of environmental self-identity and 47.9% of the variance of frugal behavior, with a strong influence by the thrifty consumer identity. This emphasizes the economic dimension of frugal consumption patterns and the importance of considering how people view themselves, both as individuals and as consumers, in order to more effectively engage and maintain long-term sustainable frugal actions.

Do Social Media Posts Influence Consumption Behavior towards Plastic Pollution?

“…First, through internalization when moral traits are reflected towards the self. This theory is consistent with self-identity theory which states that individuals will consistently act morally based on self-perception [34,35,37]. Individuals are more obliged to act in a more environmentally friendly manner [34,39].…”

“…Having multiple identities may not always exhibit consistency in action to due changes in environment and variety of contexts [36]. In most cases, identities related to environmental behavior may not always be salient [36,37]. Pro-environmental behaviors may be reinforced by making moral identity more salient in a specific context [34].…”

“…Individuals would engage pro-environmental behavior by when moral actions are conveyed publicly [34]. Symbolization emphasizes that is important that other people recognize one's moral behavior [37]. Bhatti et al [40] applied these aspects of moral identity to prosocial behavior in the online context.…”

Influencing factors and mechanism of tourists’ pro-environmental behavior – Empirical analysis of the CAC-MOA integration model

“…The latter refers to the level to which an individual regards acting with environmentalism as an important component of himself or herself ( van der Werff et al, 2013b ; Qasim et al, 2019 ). The role of environmental self-identity in predicting environmental behavioral intentions has been widely validated ( Whitmarsh and O'Neill, 2010 ; Van der Werff et al, 2013a ; Gil-Giménez et al, 2021 ; van der Werff et al, 2021 ). For example, individuals with a strong sense of environmental self-identity are more likely to consume organic food ( Qasim et al, 2019 ), engage in recycling and environmental activities ( Balunde et al, 2019 ), and have a greater willingness to consume energy efficiently and purchase sustainable products ( van der Werff et al, 2013b ).…”

“…For example, green self-identity is related to organic food consumption behavior ( Carfora et al, 2019 ), sustainable self-identity is related to sustainable purchase behavior ( Chen, 2020 ), and recycling self-identity is related to recycling behavior ( Trudel et al, 2016 ). However, the generalized term of environmental self-identity is more widely used to predict environmentally friendly behaviors, including frugal behavior ( Gil-Giménez et al, 2021 ), pro-environmental behavior ( van der Werff et al, 2014 ), and energy consumption ( Emmerich et al, 2020 ).…”