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Publication
Understanding families’ motivations for sustainable behaviors
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
While interest in eco-feedback technologies has peaked over the last decade, research increasingly high lights that simply providing information to individuals regarding their consumption behaviors does not
guarantee behavior change. This has lead to an increasing body of work that attempts to characterize
individuals’ latent motivations that drive sustainable behaviors. With this paper we aim at expanding this
body of work by analyzing such motivations in the context of families. We report findings from inter views with 15 families who used an eco-feedback interface over a period of 2 years. Our study reveals
that motivations for sustainable behavior were not only rooted in individuals’ environmental concerns
and need for expense management but they also regarded: (i) individuals’ and families’ need for a sense
of control and security, (ii) parents’ self-perceived responsibility of their role as parents and (iii) the percep tion of individual as well as family identity. We argue that in order for eco-feedback technologies to attain
long-lasting behavioral changes in the domestic environment they need to address basic family needs
that go beyond individual ideals of pro-environmental behavior
Description
Keywords
Sustainability Motivations Behavior change Family dynamics Energy consumption Eco-feedback . Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia
Citation
Barreto, M. L., Szóstek, A., Karapanos, E., Nunes, N. J., Pereira, L., & Quintal, F. (2014). Understanding families’ motivations for sustainable behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 40, 6-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.07.042
Publisher
Elsevier