TY - JOUR
T1 - Meditating for the Planet
T2 - Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Sustainable Consumption Behaviors
AU - Geiger, Sonja M.
AU - Fischer, Daniel
AU - Schrader, Ulf
AU - Grossman, Paul
N1 - Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4821-5214 Geiger Sonja M. 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5691-0087 Fischer Daniel 2 Schrader Ulf 1 Grossman Paul 3 1 Technische Universität Berlin, Germany 2 Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany 3 European Center for Mindfulness, Freiburg, Germany Sonja M. Geiger, Institute for Vocational Education and Work Studies, Technische Universität Berlin, Marchstraße 23, 10587 Berlin, Germany. Email: sonja.m.geiger@tu-berlin.de 10 2019 0013916519880897 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 SAGE Publications Recent research suggests that mindfulness may foster sustainable consumption behavior through the reduction of the so-called attitude–behavior gap, or by weakening material values while increasing subjective well-being. The current controlled longitudinal study tested these propositions by employing a sustainability-adapted mindfulness-based intervention (sMBI) to two different samples ( n = 60 university students; n = 71 employees). Although the intervention successfully enhanced mindful experiences in both samples, we found no evidence for neither direct effects on sustainable consumption behavior or related attitudes, nor for the reduction of the attitude–behavior gap. However, the intervention led to greater well-being in the student sample and suggested a decline of materialistic value orientations in both samples. The results blunt previous claims about potential causal effects of mindfulness practice on sustainable consumption behavior. Nevertheless, they indicate that the sMBI affects behavior-distal variables, such as material values and well-being, which in turn could influence consumption behavior in the long run. mindfulness sustainable consumption pro-environmental behavior attitude–behavior gap material values well-being intervention study Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002347 014UT1416 edited-state corrected-proof Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded under social ecological research scheme (SÖF) of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, research grant number 014UT1416. ORCID iDs Sonja M. Geiger https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4821-5214 Daniel Fischer https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5691-0087 Supplemental Material Supplemental material for this article is available online.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - Recent research suggests that mindfulness may foster sustainable consumption behavior through the reduction of the so-called attitude–behavior gap, or by weakening material values while increasing subjective well-being. The current controlled longitudinal study tested these propositions by employing a sustainability-adapted mindfulness-based intervention (sMBI) to two different samples (n = 60 university students; n = 71 employees). Although the intervention successfully enhanced mindful experiences in both samples, we found no evidence for neither direct effects on sustainable consumption behavior or related attitudes, nor for the reduction of the attitude–behavior gap. However, the intervention led to greater well-being in the student sample and suggested a decline of materialistic value orientations in both samples. The results blunt previous claims about potential causal effects of mindfulness practice on sustainable consumption behavior. Nevertheless, they indicate that the sMBI affects behavior-distal variables, such as material values and well-being, which in turn could influence consumption behavior in the long run.
AB - Recent research suggests that mindfulness may foster sustainable consumption behavior through the reduction of the so-called attitude–behavior gap, or by weakening material values while increasing subjective well-being. The current controlled longitudinal study tested these propositions by employing a sustainability-adapted mindfulness-based intervention (sMBI) to two different samples (n = 60 university students; n = 71 employees). Although the intervention successfully enhanced mindful experiences in both samples, we found no evidence for neither direct effects on sustainable consumption behavior or related attitudes, nor for the reduction of the attitude–behavior gap. However, the intervention led to greater well-being in the student sample and suggested a decline of materialistic value orientations in both samples. The results blunt previous claims about potential causal effects of mindfulness practice on sustainable consumption behavior. Nevertheless, they indicate that the sMBI affects behavior-distal variables, such as material values and well-being, which in turn could influence consumption behavior in the long run.
KW - attitude–behavior gap
KW - intervention study
KW - material values
KW - mindfulness
KW - pro-environmental behavior
KW - sustainable consumption
KW - well-being
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U2 - 10.1177/0013916519880897
DO - 10.1177/0013916519880897
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85074498153
SN - 0013-9165
VL - 52
SP - 1012
EP - 1042
JO - Environment and Behavior
JF - Environment and Behavior
IS - 9
ER -