Shifting consumer behavior to address climate change

• Published in: Current opinion in psychology 2021-12, Vol.42, p.108-113
• Main Authors: Habib, Rishad, White, Katherine, Hardisty, David J., Zhao, Jiaying
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior change; Climate change; Consumer behavior; Feelings; Habit; Individual self; Social influence; Sustainability; Tangibility
• ISSN: 2352-250X; 2352-250X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.04.007

We review recent articles on how to change consumer behavior in ways that improve climate impacts, with a special focus on those articles using experimental interventions and measuring actual behaviors. We organize the findings using the SHIFT framework to categorize behavior change strategies based on five psychological factors: Social influence (e.g. communicating that others are changing to plant-based diets doubled meatless lunch orders), Habit (e.g. consumer collaboration to establish new, value-based practices helped to reduce food waste), Individual self (e.g. when women made up half of the group, 51% more trees were conserved), Feelings and cognition (e.g. anticipated guilt reduced choice of unethical attributes in made-to-order products), and Tangibility (e.g. concrete representations of the future of recycled products improved recycling behavior). [Display omitted] •We review two years of research on how to improve climate-friendly consumer behavior.•We focus on studies using experimental interventions and measuring real behaviors.•We organize findings using the SHIFT framework.•The SHIFT factors are Social influence, Habit, Individual self, Feelings and cognition, and Tangibility.