Dissertation

Social Identity-Based Barriers to Pro-Environmental Consumer Behavior

Cabano, Frank Gregory

2018

Overview

Although social observability (the potential for others to view one’s behaviors) generally promotes socially desirable behaviors, this dissertation proposes that social identity-based barriers to pro-environmental consumption may be heightened by social observability. In six studies, through both correlational and experimental designs, this research demonstrates that social observability negatively impacts pro-environmental willingness for consumers low in environmentalist social identity (those who do not identify with the environmentalist social category) due to the categorization threat concerns of potentially being misclassified in undesirable social identities to the self. This work finds that social observability also produces deleterious downstream consequences, such that individuals low in environmentalist social identity are less likely to engage in future sustainable behaviors as well. In contrast, the environmental willingness of consumers high in environmentalist social identity is not dependent on the social observability of the behavior. Thus, these findings highlight social-identity based barriers that further deter consumers who do not identify as environmentalists from behaving in environmentally-friendly ways in the public sphere.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Marketing
• ISBN: 9780438148932, 0438148932