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Project title

Investigating the nature of the value-action gap among conscious- consumers in environmental food behaviours

Primary Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

Environmental Protection Agency

Lead Organisation

University College Cork (UCC)

Lead Applicant

Chris Moran

Project Abstract

Pro-environmental behaviour change has been highlighted as a central component in efforts to minimise environmental degradation and operate within planetary boundaries (IPCC, 2018; White, Habib and Hardisty, 2019). A significant obstacle in this regard is the ‘value-action gap’ whereby consumer attitudes and values are not easily translated into behaviours (Chai et al., 2015; Dolnicar et al., 2017). Recent studies have advocated the benefit of using of ‘cognitive dissonance theory’ (Festinger, 1957) to explore environmental behaviours (Juvan and Dolnicar, 2021; Schrems and Upham, 2020). This social-psychological framework states that “the detection of an inconsistency arouses a state of discomfort that motivates the individual to reduce it” (Vaidis and Bran, 2019). The cognitive dissonance process can be broken down into three sequential steps: presence of an perceived inconsistency, subsequent arousal of a dissonance state, and the regulation strategy employed by the individual to reduce or repair this dissonance state. The present study aims to investigate the nature of the ‘value-action gap’ among ‘conscious’ consumers in the context of environmental food behaviours through adopting a cognitive dissonance lens. It will implement a qualitative methodological approach and occur in two phases. Phase 1 will draw on an existing dataset of 42 in-depth semi structured interviews in order to explore the role of emotion (step 2 of the cognitive dissonance process) in influencing environmental food behaviours. Phase 2 will employ a phenomenological study by conducting semi-structured in-depth online interviews with a sample of 25 ‘conscious’ consumers. This phase will strive to characterise and theorise on the three steps in the cognitive dissonance process: the underlying determinants or triggers of dissonance; how it manifests itself (cognitive dissonance state); and strategies employed by consumers seeking to regulate and/or reduce dissonance when it is aroused and experienced.

Grant Approved

�27,500.00

Research Hub

Green and Circular Economy

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

01/09/2022

Initial Projected Completion Date

31/08/2023