Shifting Mindsets for Sustainable Consumption

Unsustainable consumption is a key driver of the climate crisis and must be urgently addressed to stay within planetary boundaries. Despite widespread awareness, personal lifestyle changes have proven insufficient and difficult. Rather than relying on individual self-control alone, major structural policy solutions addressing the systemic roots of the social dilemma of unsustainable consumption are needed. Thus, citizens, as well as policymakers, need to become more aware of the significant constraints to sustainable lifestyles and to support and actively promote such policy solutions. I argue that this very process is psychologically hindered by an individual autonomy mindset, characterized by an emphasis on personal autonomy, a neglect of the pervasive influence of structural factors on choice (structural blindness), and a focus on individual solutions for self-optimization.SUSCON aims to expose the limitations of this mindset for advancing the sustainability transformation and to understand the psychological mechanisms needed to shift towards an alternate mindset—one that better recognizes structural influences on behavior and the benefits of more systemic policy solutions. Using a diverse set of methods including public goods games, ecological momentary assessment, policy scenarios, and natural language processing, I will demonstrate how these opposing mindsets influence structural awareness, cooperation, and policy support in citizens and policymakers, and explore novel avenues for fostering a shift in mindset.By intertwining psychology with sociology, economics, and political science, SUSCON seeks to deepen our understanding of mental barriers to sustainable consumption and to chart the foundations for more effective governance. The project challenges conventional narratives and provides valuable insights for policymakers, contributing to the development of more effective climate policies.