PROJECT
Nudging consumers towards sustainable consumption
Exploring the gap between consumers’ attitudes and their sustainable behaviours
How can we nudge consumers to adopt new (and perhaps inconvenient) sustainable behaviours? What message(s) should we use and which ones should we avoid? Research suggests that there is a gap between consumers’ attitudes towards sustainability and their actual sustainable behaviours, making it challenging to transition to more sustainable consumption on a mass scale at the moment.
The focus of the project is to examine how consumers process visual and textual information promoting sustainable consumption and how media affects consumers. This project consists of two separate projects with available PhD opportunities.
Project 1 focuses on media and its effects on sustainable behaviours. Project 2 investigates consumers’ cognitive information processing and examines how information design affects attitudes and behaviours. A series of experiments with consumers will be carried out to develop the most optimal marketing communication strategies to increase consumers’ adoption of sustainable behaviours.
Project lead:
- Dr Liudmila Tarabashkina (The University of Western Australia)
Project goals
Investigate how information format and media coverage affect consumers’ attitudes and subsequent behaviours.
Explore how information delivery can be optimised for different groups of consumers.
Work with us
PhD opportunities
If this is something you are passionate about, please get in touch. There are PhD or research assistant opportunities to explore.
We need PhD students to join our team to help us collect data. Prospective students may also be required to perform a series of additional experiments with consumers or carry out surveys. Candidates need to have strong quantitative research skills (experimental design, ANOVA, SEM) and solid background in consumer and/or social psychology.
Contact Dr Liudmila Tarabashkina for PhD supervision opportunities via the contact details below. To assess your eligibility to enter the UWA Business School PhD program contact: [email protected].
Project collaborators
International and domestic collaboration is welcome under this project. For more information or for collaboration opportunities, contact Dr Liudmila Tarabashkina via the details below.
Readings
Consumer creativity:
- An, D. and Youn, N. (2018). ‘The inspirational power of arts on creativity’. Journal of Business Research, 85, 467–475. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.025.
- Rosa, J. A., Qualls, W. J. and Ruth, J. A. (2014). ‘Consumer creativity: Effects of gender and variation in the richness of vision and touch inputs’. Journal of Business Research, 67(3), 386-393. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.12.023.
Design complexity:
- Pieters, R., Wedel, M., and Batra, R. (2010). ‘The stopping power of advertising: Measures and effects of visual complexity’. Journal of Marketing, 74(5), 48. doi: 10.1509/jmkg.74.5.48.
