Secure and sustainable but not as prominent among the ambivalent: Attachment style and green consumption

Abstract

Human activity in recent decades has degraded the environment and contributed to numerous public health hazards. Thus, the United Nations recently made an urgent call to develop sustainable consumption practices. Although existing literature has acknowledged attachment style as a potential predictor of certain consumption responses, its influence on pro-environmental consumption has not yet been examined. We tested this possibility in a largesampled study (N = 1,397) and found securely attached individuals to report the highest scores on the GREEN consumption scale measuring consumers’ propensity to buy and use goods and services sustainably. Although we did not find that people with an anxious/ambivalent attachment style differed significantly from those with an avoidant attachment style, we observed a trend in this direction, with the former demonstrating directionally less favorable values toward pro-environmental consumption. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for the notion that attachment styles may meaningfully predict pro-environmental consumption. Given that modern psychometric tools can predict Big Five personality traits from digital behavioral footprints, these tools may also predict a person’s attachment style and thus facilitate more effective, tailor-made pro-environmental communication campaigns aimed at mitigating climate change.