Exploring Socio-Cognitive Mindfulness in the Context of Sustainable Consumption

Abstract

Mindfulness has been presented as a consumer characteristic mitigating negative environmental effects of overconsumption. This study argues that consumers’ propensity to engage in sustainable consumption behaviors additionally depends on individual values and beliefs, developing a more nuanced view of mindfulness in this particular domain of consumer behavior. Based on an online survey among 546 American consumers, the study finds that mindfulness not only affects a set of sustainable consumption behaviors directly, but also has an impact on environmental concern and perceived consumer effectiveness, accounting for an indirect positive effect of mindfulness through these values and beliefs. Materialism is negatively associated with mindfulness. However, certain forms of sustainable consumption behaviors may offer a pathway for materialist consumers to participate in sustainable consumption. Research findings indicate that increased mindfulness may be effective in changing daily consumption routines, helping to reduce negative environmental impacts of overconsumption, particularly in populations with increased environmental concern and perceived consumer effectiveness.

Investigating the impacts of personality traits on collaborative consumption intention of luxury fashion products among middle-aged women

“…The results of the study further indicate that the relationships between materialism and both attitude and intention are not significant. Recent consumer behavior research also found no significant relationship between materialism and consumer sharing intention (Helm & Subramaniam, 2019). Moreover, previous research pertinent to consumer apparel also offers a consistent finding (JOHNSON et al, 2016).…”

The Way Forward in Mindfulness and Sustainability: a Critical Review and Research Agenda

“…This review focuses on peer-reviewed journal publications and books from academic publishers, released over a 20-year period since the first publications in 1999 up to 2020. Furthermore, in bounding the scope of this article, content is focussed to 'meditative mindfulness' (Hart et al 2013) of the John Kabat-Zinn tradition and pays less attention to studies that have incorporated the 'creative mindfulness' (Hart et al 2013) concept by Langer (examples of such studies are Wang et al 2016Wang et al , 2019Tang et al 2017;Helm and Subramaniam 2019). Meditative mindfulness has dominated the literature regarding mindfulness and sustainability and also involves a distinct approach to designing interventions and measuring mindfulness.…”

Being mindful in the tax context in Italy: Examining whether and how mindfulness relates with tax evasion intentions and support for tax progressivity

“…People high in trait mindfulness were found to be more empathic and concerned with others’ well-being [ 7 ] and more willing to act ethically, to value upholding ethical standards, and to make ethical decisions [ 8 ]. Helm and Subramaiam (2019) found that mindfulness favors sustainable consumption behavior through decreased adoption of materialistic values [ 18 , 19 ]. There is also evidence that mindfulness promotes helping behavior [ 7 , 20 ] and prevents ostracism [ 21 ].…”