Personal Norms in a Globalized World: Norm-activation Processes and Reduced Clothing Consumption

Sustainable growth, through efficient technologies or sustainable innovations, has failed to deliver urgently needed changes towards genuinely sustainable production and consumption. Reducing consumption across sectors, therefore, is an imperative given the state of the environment. Correspondingly, there is a need to better understand what leads consumers to reduce their consumption. Building on the Norm Activation Model (NAM), the current study explores the expression of personal norms as well as intentions to reduce clothing consumption. It extends the NAM with the concept of identification with and care for all humanity (IWAH). By employing structural equation modeling (n = 4123), it finds evidence for positive relationships between IWAH and NAM variables. Moreover, outcome efficacy has the strongest positive relationship with personal norms, which in turn relate to intentions for reducing consumption. Additionally, the study allows drawing implications for developing future interventions aiming at fostering reduced clothing consumption.