Pursuing Sustainability through Perceived Behavioral Control: Discussing Distinct Effects of Self-Consciousness and Self-Identity on Anti-Consumption

Sustainable consumption has been increasingly popular since sustainable development becomes a beneficial concept for all humans. Anti-consumption, highly related to sustainable consumption, refers to rejecting less sustainable products. Intuitively, anti-consumption is driven from self-perception with considering the environment or society. Little research, however, discussed psychological processes of anti-consumption based on factors with only considering self. Thus, this research focused on discussing the effect of perceived behavioral control from the theory of planned behavior and self-control
theory, which has been prevalently used in sustainable consumption, to develop a
theoretical model regarding two distinct effects on anti-consumption in terms of
self-consciousness and self-identity. Using structural equation modeling to analyze the data via online survey, the results showed that personal identity driven by private
self-consciousness tends to positively affect perceived behavioral control over
anti-consumption, whereas social identity has only a directly positive effect on behavioral intentions toward anti-consumption. This type of perceived control has a positive influence on behavioral intentions toward anti-consumption. These findings suggested that marketers can promote sustainable products, corporate social responsibility, or any events regarding sustainable development by differentiating self-identity in two consumer segments. In terms of promotional strategies about communication campaigns, marketers or policymakers can enhance self-benefit to stimulate consumers’ perceived behavioral control over more sustainable behavior in addition to public-benefit.