Religiosity and Environmentally Concerned Consumer Behaviour: ‘becoming one with God (nature)’ through Surrendering Environmental Identities

Abstract

AbstractThis study explores how transcendence of identity, a common doctrinal ethical tenet of religiosity, relates to nature concerns amongst consumers. It employs an interpretive research approach to gain an in‐depth understanding of subjective experiences and nature concerns shared amongst environmentally concerned consumers with a view to investigating how they are informed by transcendence of identity. With the aid of projective technique, in‐depth interviews were conducted involving 22 environmentally concerned consumers located in a major Australian city. Two themes emerged from the data: (1) complete surrender (diminishing distinction between humans and nature); (2) deconstructing environmentally concerned consumer identity (transforming from end‐user identity projects into contributor‐to‐nature identity projects). It is therefore postulated that nature concerns of consumers can be understood through the common doctrinal ethical tenet of theistic and nontheistic beliefs, transcendence of identity. The findings show several implications for environmentally concerned consumer behaviour and market practices.