Is the Sharing Economy Actually Eco-Friendly?
Foreword
This article is part of a series on cutting edge research that has the potential to create positive social impact. While the research is inherently specific, we believe that the insights gleaned from each piece in this series are relevant to behavioral science practitioners in many different fields. As a socially conscious applied research firm, we are always looking for ways to translate science into impact. If you would like to chat with us about a potential collaboration, feel free to contact us.
Introduction
Shared ownership agreements, which describe when consumers give others temporary access to their physical possessions, have recently increased in popularity.
But is sharing eco-friendly?
The idea goes that sharing allows consumers to use products without paying the full amount, thereby allowing consumers to access a wider range of products while simultaneously saving them money. Supposedly, sharing is more sustainable as well: If fewer people need to buy physical goods in order to derive some specific level of use from them, fewer resources need to be consumed to create these products, all else equal.
This view may not necessarily be as true as we might think according to research by Laura Straeter and Jessica Exton, two behavioral scientists at ING, a Dutch bank. This research study addresses the downsides of sharing-based ownership agreements from the perspective of sustainability, a key area of interest for The Decision Lab.
We reached out to Laura and Jessica to discuss their work on this study as well as the future direction of research involving applied behavioral science and sustainability.
To read more about the study, check out the Behavioural Economics Guide (page 100).
References
1. Belk, R. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, 67, 1595-1600.
2. Böcker, L, & Meelen, T. (2017). Sharing for people, planet or profit? Analysing motivations for intended sharing economy participation. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 23, 28-39.
3. Hamari, J., Sjöklint, M., & Ukkonen, A. (2015). The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67, 2047-2059.
4. Bani, M., & Blom, M. (2020). Rethinking the road to the circular economy. Retrieved from ING Economics Department website: https://www.ing.nl/media/ING_EBZ_rethinking-the-road-to-the-circular-economy_tcm162-186791.pdf
5. Rozin, P., Millman, L., & Nemeroff, C. (1986). Operation of the laws of sympathetic magic in disgust and other domains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 703–712.
6. Rozin, P., & Fallon, A. E. (1987). A perspective on disgust. Psychological Review, 94, 23–41.
7. Argo, J. J., Dahl, D. W., & Morales, A. C. (2006). Consumer contamination: How consumers react to products touched by others. Journal of Marketing, 70, 81-94.
About the Authors
Laura Straeter
Laura Straeter is a behavioural scientist at ING. She joined ING in 2018 and has expertise in psychology and consumer behaviour. Laura holds a PhD in consumer research and marketing from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and has a background both in marketing and economic psychology. Laura has previously lectured at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics at the graduate and undergraduate level.
Jessica Exton
Jessica Exton is a behavioural scientist with cross-sector management consulting experience. She joined ING’s International Consumer Economics team in 2018 and holds a master's degree in behavioural economics from the University of Amsterdam. Jess manages the ING International Survey, one of Europe’s largest and longest-running surveys on financial decision making and delivers insights from behavioural science to ING's retail business.
Julian Hazell
Julian is passionate about understanding human behavior by analyzing the data behind the decisions that individuals make. He is also interested in communicating social science insights to the public, particularly at the intersection of behavioral science, microeconomics, and data science. Before joining The Decision Lab, he was an economics editor at Graphite Publications, a Montreal-based publication for creative and analytical thought. He has written about various economic topics ranging from carbon pricing to the impact of political institutions on economic performance. Julian graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Management.
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