Sustainable Consumer Behavior in Purchasing, Using and Disposing of Clothes

In this study we investigate how consumers in The Netherlands can be persuaded to adopt sustainable practices when purchasing, using and disposing of clothes. This study investigates the attitude-behavior gap for the sustainable choices for purchase, use and disposing of clothes. For each consumption phase we ran a two-step multiple regression. The findings showed that the importance of the factors vary in the three consumption phases. For purchasing and disposal decisions, the core motivator social motivation predicts sustainable practices best, while it has no role in the usage phase. The factor ability appeared to have a significant role in the disposal phase, but not in the other phases. Finally, the trigger appears to lower the consumers' ability in the purchasing phase, while it enhances the core motivator social evaluation in the disposal phase.

Automated summary

This study explores how consumers in The Netherlands can be persuaded to adopt sustainable practices when purchasing, using, and disposing of clothes. It found that social motivation predicts sustainable practices best for purchasing and disposal decisions, while the factor ability plays a significant role in the disposal phase. Additionally, the trigger affects consumers' ability in the purchasing phase and enhances social evaluation in the disposal phase.