Social influence and sustainability in households

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to discuss the role of social influence regarding sustainability in households. Several research studies show that individual and family recycling and e‐consumption behaviours are more affected by people that the individual/family know than by outside influences such as government or advertising campaigns. Social influence theory, although prevalent in such diverse fields as communication, marketing, sociology including medical and rural sociology, management information science and education, has not been used as extensively in human sciences, home economics and human ecology, specifically in applications to household green behaviour. The origins of social influence are found in the ground‐breaking work in opinion leadership by Lazarsfeld in sociology and in E.M. Rogers's diffusion of innovation theory. The present article makes a case for using social influence theory as a framework for future studies and academic work in environmentalism, and for those trying to increase or promote pro‐environmental behaviour at the individual, family or household level.