Temporal myopia in sustainable behavior under uncertainty

Arianne J. van der Wal*, Femke van Horen, Amir Grinstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Consumers in today's world are confronted with the alarming consequences of unsustainable behavior such as pollution and resource degradation. In addition, they are facing increases in uncertainty due to external events such as economic crises and terror attacks. These two problems are central to consumers’ lives, occur on a global scale, and have significant impact on the world's political, economic, environmental, and social landscapes. Contributing to research on persuasion and pro-social behavior, we show in four studies, conducted online, in the lab, and in the field, that these two problems are interconnected. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that uncertainty leads to lower levels of sustainable behavior in comparison to certainty. Study 2 reveals in addition that this is due to the display of higher levels of temporal discounting under uncertainty (i.e., adopting a more immediate orientation). Finally, Studies 3 and 4 show that emphasizing the immediate benefits of sustainability during uncertainty reverses the negative effect and leads consumers to act more sustainably. Overall, these findings provide valuable implications for policy makers and responsible marketers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)378-393
Number of pages16
JournalInternational Journal of Research in Marketing
Volume35
Issue number3
Early online date16 Aug 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2018

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Association for Consumer Research (specifically from TCR – Transformative Consumer Research) and the Sheth Foundation . We are grateful for valuable comments and statistical support of Erik de Kwaadsteniet, Jörg A. J. Gross, Tom F. Wilderjans, and Marcello Gallucci. We also want to acknowledge the marketing consultancy firm VODW ( www.vodw.com ) for their funding and managerial insights.

FundersFunder number
Marcello Gallucci
Sheth Foundation
VODW
Association for Consumer Research

    Keywords

    • Sustainability
    • Temporal discounting
    • Uncertainty

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