How and when Narcissism and faith in humanity drive sustainable consumption

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine how and when narcissism and faith in humanity simultaneously influence product reuse. Despite its critical role in promoting sustainability, scholars have paid scant attention to product reuse as a reliable aspect of sustainable consumer behavior. Moreover, research on personality traits as drivers of sustainable consumption has mostly focused on the Big Five personality traits. We posit that the effects of consumers' narcissism and faith in humanity on product reuse are explained by social exclusion and are conditional on subjective norms. We test our hypotheses using two experiments and three cross-sectional surveys. We find that while narcissism has a negative effect on product reuse, faith in humanity has a positive effect on product reuse. We also observe that social exclusion mediates the effects of narcissism and faith in humanity, and that subjective norms positively moderate the relationships between narcissism and product reuse. This study highlights the importance of product reuse as a key indicator of sustainable consumption and offers novel insights into the how and when consumers engage in product reuse.

How narcissism biases food healthiness perceptions and consumption

“…Prior research shows, for instance, that when an object-such as food-is portrayed as a popular option preferred by most consumers, socially included consumers whose decisions are accepted by those close to them are more likely to choose more sustainable options than socially excluded consumers (Gao & Mattila, 2016). This suggests that narcissists who strive for social recognition may well be tempted by sustainable food choices and the field of work could gain by continuing the work initiated by Bowen et al (2022) on how narcissism can contribute to more sustainable food consumption.…”

Sweat it for sustainability: Impact of physical activity/exercise on sustainable consumption

“…Covid 19 pandemic has motivated stakeholders to share data (Viglia et al, 2021), and future research works may leverage on this understanding to request/collect consumer data on variables such as body mass index to assess the roles of such variables of salience (Bollimbala et al, 2019) in determining consumers' fitness and its impact on their consumption behaviors. Lastly, consumers' pursuit of sustainable consumption would depend on a lot of factors other than physical activity, such as their socioeconomic status (Kim et al, 2022), narcissism and faith in humanity (Bowen et al, 2022), generational cohort (Casalegno et al, 2022, and mindfulness (Kaur & Luchs, 2021). The integration of such consumer-related factors that shape sustainable consumption along with physical activity should be pursued by future research.…”

“…Lastly, consumers' pursuit of sustainable consumption would depend on a lot of factors other than physical activity, such as their socioeconomic status (Kim et al, 2022), narcissism and faith in humanity (Bowen et al, 2022), generational cohort (Casalegno et al, 2022), and mindfulness (Kaur & Luchs, 2021). The integration of such consumer‐related factors that shape sustainable consumption along with physical activity should be pursued by future research.…”

Narcissism and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Self-Monitoring, Environmental Control and Attitudes

“…The present research aimed to analyze individual differences through the lens of narcissistic personality traits (i.e., grandiose and vulnerable narcissism) in relation to PEB, because they may create a behavioral pattern of exploitation and manipulation of surrounding resources for personal purposes, thus diminishing the individual's understanding of the importance for protecting the environment. Although recent studies investigated the relationship between narcissistic tendencies and PEB [15,16] or pro-environmental attitudes [17], the present study expands existing research by analyzing the mechanisms (i.e., self-monitoring, environmental control, and environmental attitudes) by which grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic individuals engage or not in PEB.…”