The yuck factor counteracts sustainable laundry habits

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Consumer Behavior News

Behavior,Psychology,Sustainability

Most people today would lean towards environmentally friendly life choices, but not at the expense of being clean. When it comes to our washing habits, the fear of being perceived as dirty often wins out over the desire to act in an environmentally friendly way. And the more inclined we are to feel disgusted, the more we wash our clothes.

This is shown by a unique study that examines the driving forces behind our laundering behaviours and provides new tools for how people's environmental impact can be reduced.

"Even though the machines have become more energy-efficient, it is how often we choose to wash that has the greatest impact on the climate -- and we have never done as much washing as we do today. At the same time, most of us seem to be uninterested in changing our laundering behaviours to reduce climate impact," says Erik Klint, doctoral student at the Division of Environmental Systems Analysis at Chalmers.

"It doesn't matter how sensible and research-based an argument you have, if they run counter to people's different driving forces, such as the desire to feel a sense of belonging to a group, then they won't work," he says. One of the study's main suggestions is to encourage people to use clothes more often before they end up in the laundry basket.

The article is based on two different surveys, with about 1000 respondents per survey. The surveys asked questions about washing behaviour, habits, cleanliness norms, disgust sensitivity, and shame, among other things. All data was collected in collaboration with the knowledge and analysis company Novus. The participants were selected to constitute a representative sample of Sweden's population.

Behavior Psychology Sustainability Environmental Issues Environmental Awareness Environmental Policies Ocean Policy Land Management

 

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