Psychological and socio-demographic factors in the pre-decision stage for the purchase of e-cars

Abstract

In these times of intense political debate about climate change, it is more important than ever to understand which factors are central to adopting environmentally friendly behavior, such as buying an electric car instead of a conventional one. The stage model of self-regulated behavioral change (SSBC) offers a promising explanatory approach in which explicit attitudes, which are connected to factors such as mindfulness, play an essential role. So far, the role of implicit attitudes regarding environmental behavior was neglected in this model. Accordingly, the present study investigated if the (goal) intention to buy an electric car can be predicted by established variables like explicit attitudes, personal and social norms, and the perceived usefulness of electric vehicles and implicit attitudes. Besides, it was investigated if attitudes depend on socio-demographic variables and mindfulness aspects. For this purpose, 168 participants completed questionnaires and performed an explicit rating and an implicit affective priming task with pictures of electric vs. conventional cars. The results showed that while explicitly, electric cars were rated more positively, implicitly, this difference could not be shown. Furthermore, mindfulness was not significantly associated with attitudes or goal intention. However, goal intention was significantly predicted by explicit and implicit attitudes, personal norms, and perceived usefulness, while explicit attitudes mediated the effects of the last two variables. Accordingly, we concluded that implicit attitudes should be integrated into existing models of behavioral change and further predictors need to be identified.