The effects of academic socialisation on students’ consumer behaviour

Abstract

Since the now classic work of Newcomb (Personality and social change, Holt, New York, 1943), there has been an increasing body of research focusing on the process of academic socialisation but, as far as we know, no studies have specifically dealt with students’ consumer behaviour and, more specifically, sustainable consumption. Five hundred and five participants (432 psychology students and 73 members of the administrative, technical and supervisory staff) in two French universities (one campus-based and one multisite) completed a questionnaire measuring behaviour towards potentially recyclable objects (EMCOR) developed by Rioux and Scrima (Modes de consommation durable et attitudes envers le recyclage. Etude aupres d’une population estudiantine. Workshop Pratiques durables et responsabilite societale de l’universite. Les comportements favorables a la seconde vie des objets de consommation [Sustainable consumption and attitudes to recycling. A study with a student population. Workshop: “Sustainable practices and social responsibility at university. Giving new life to old objects”], 2015). This tool is composed of 20 items covering four dimensions: (1) disposing of objects, (2) not reusing objects, (3) finding new uses for objects, and (4) acquiring objects. The results suggest that there was a socialisation process encouraging students to adopt sustainable consumer behaviour in the campus, but not in the multisite university. This raises questions about the current debate concerning campus-based versus town-based universities.