Understanding Green Consumer Behaviour. Introduction.

Understanding Green Consumer Behaviour is about the study of knowing, learning and cognition under day-to-day conditions of life: how environmentally-friendly products were evaluated and chosen by consumers; what information was paid attention to and which one was ignored; what learning processes could explain how consumers created "green meaning" regarding a certain product; and how skilful and intelligent was the green shopping problem solved by consumers. Despite a century of intensive research into the human mind, our understanding of how people in everyday life actually make choices and solve problems is surprisingly limited. Through the study of green, environmentally friendly consumers, this book examines basic aspects of the working of the human mind, and recommends a fundamental re-orientation regarding the ideas and methods which are applied in contemporary cognitive research. It addresses such questions as: How do consumers develop 'meaning' regarding green products? How are such processes subconsciously structured by certain activities of the mind? How intelligent and successful are consumers in assessing the environmentally friendly attributes of products in daily life? Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on insights from psychology and anthropology as well as the author's own intensive field research, the book’s interdisciplinary framework allows the author to develop an understanding of the entire cognitive process. Taking an international approach, and incorporating original, ground-breaking anthropological and cognitive research, this book is a must read for researchers and advanced students of consumer behaviour, the sociology of consumption and behavioural psychology. From a cognitive psychological point of view, the book follows a research tradition of early cognitive psychological research from the 1930s, such as Frederic Bartlett's “Remembering: A Study in Experiential and Social Psychology” or Paul Lazarsfeld's psychological consumer study of “Shoe Buying in Zurich”. In addition, the green consumer was approached from the point of view of the cognitive anthropologist. In order to gain an understanding of how cognition works in daily life, ideas from Claude Levi-Strauss and his study of “The Savage Mind” were drawn upon. Problem solving behaviour was explained in relation to the context in which it occurs. The contention is that human cognition cannot be understood unless its contextual and experiential nature is paid attention to. Once this is acknowledged, fundamental insights into the working of the human mind and what constitutes human intelligence can be gained.