The Missing Piece in Sustainable Consumption
We've all been there: diligently sorting our recycling, remembering to bring reusable bags to the grocery store, feeling a pang of guilt when we opt for the convenient rather than the sustainable. Despite growing environmental awareness, a perplexing gap persists between our green intentions and our actual consumption habits.
The primary barrier to sustainable consumption isn't typically price or lack of information, but the absence of strong social norms supporting environmentally conscious choices 2 .
This discovery aligns with a broader theoretical shift occurring within sociology: the reintroduction of embodied practical understanding to how we conceptualize and study sustainable consumption. This perspective suggests that sustainability isn't just a cognitive choice made in our heads, but a physical practice ingrained in our bodies through daily routines, social interactions, and material engagements.
Focuses on information, awareness, and rational decision-making to promote sustainable behavior.
Focuses on physical practices, social norms, and habitual behaviors to promote sustainable consumption.
Embodied cognition represents a revolutionary approach in cognitive science that challenges traditional views of thinking as something that occurs only in the brain. Instead, it proposes that our cognitive processes are deeply shaped by our bodily experiences and sensorimotor capacities 6 .
"The body is our primary 'vehicle of being in the world'"
— Maurice Merleau-Ponty 6
This perspective fundamentally reshapes how we think about knowledge. Consider the difference between reading about how to balance on a bicycle and actually feeling the subtle weight shifts as you learn to ride. The former gives you information; the latter gives you embodied knowledge—a physical understanding that becomes second nature 3 .
In sociology, Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "habitus" provides a crucial framework for understanding how embodied knowledge shapes our daily practices, including consumption. Habitus refers to the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that we develop through our life experiences 5 .
For sustainable consumption, this means that simply providing information about environmental issues may be insufficient if it doesn't connect with these deeper, physically-embedded patterns of behavior 5 .
Groundbreaking research from 2025 reveals that social norms play a decisive role in sustainable consumption—often more significant than price or information. An international research team discovered that when individuals committed to sustainability observe important people in their lives making sustainable choices, they're more likely to follow suit 2 .
"People are often willing to pay more or spend extra time searching for sustainable products if they are genuinely motivated to make environmentally conscious choices. But without pressure from others, even the strongest convictions cannot resist the temptations of cheap mass consumption."
— Zara Berberyan, Lead Researcher 2
This research demonstrates that sustainable consumption thrives when it becomes a social expectation practiced within one's environment.
Parallel insights come from educational research on embodied learning, which shows that physical action and engagement create deeper, more permanent knowledge than passive reception of information 3 .
This approach has direct implications for promoting sustainable consumption. Rather than merely telling people to be more sustainable, interventions that incorporate physical practice may create more lasting change by embedding sustainable practices at a bodily level 3 .
To understand the powerful influence of social factors on sustainable consumption, let's examine the 2025 study conducted by Berberyan, Jastram, and their international team. The researchers designed a comprehensive approach to identify what truly drives sustainable purchasing decisions, moving beyond conventionally assumed barriers like price and information availability 2 .
The study employed a mixed-methods design combining surveys, controlled experiments, and observational data. Participants were exposed to various shopping scenarios while researchers manipulated social cues, price structures, and product information.
The research specifically measured how participants' stated environmental attitudes translated into actual purchasing behavior when social norms were either emphasized or minimized.
The findings revealed a dramatic disparity between what consumers claimed would influence their decisions and what actually did. When social norms supported sustainable consumption, participants were significantly more likely to choose environmentally friendly products—even when these options were more expensive or required extra effort to locate 2 .
| Experimental Condition | Likelihood of Sustainable Choice | Key Influencing Factor |
|---|---|---|
| Strong pro-sustainability social norms | 78% | Observing others' sustainable choices |
| Weak social norms | 34% | Personal environmental attitudes |
| High price differential | 42% | Social norms overcame price concerns |
| Low information availability | 65% | Social guidance compensated for information gaps |
Investigating embodied dimensions of sustainable consumption requires specialized methodological approaches that capture both the physical and social aspects of consumption practices.
Analyzes how materials, competencies, and meanings combine in everyday practices
Examines deeply ingrained dispositions that guide behavior
Documents actual behavior in context
Quantifies perceived social expectations
| Theoretical Construct | Definition | Relevance to Sustainable Consumption |
|---|---|---|
| Embodied Cognition | Theory that cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the body's interactions with the world | Explains why physical interventions can change behavior more effectively than information alone |
| Habitus | Bourdieu's concept of ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions | Helps explain why sustainable practices feel "natural" in some social contexts but forced in others |
| Social Norms | Informal rules governing behavior in groups | Accounts for how observable practices within social networks drive sustainable choices |
| Practical Understanding | Knowledge embedded in physical competence and skills | Explains how sustainable practices require physical skill development, not just intention |
The reintegration of embodied practical understanding into the sociology of sustainable consumption offers a profoundly hopeful insight: the gap between our environmental values and our daily practices isn't a personal failing, but rather a design flaw in how we approach sustainability.
By recognizing that sustainable consumption depends not just on what we know but on how we live through our bodies and social relationships, we can develop more effective strategies for environmental change.
This perspective suggests that the path to sustainability lies not only in technological innovations or policy reforms, but in cultivating new embodied practices—making sustainable actions visible, socially valued, and physically ingrained.
The challenge ahead is to create environments where sustainable practices become the path of least resistance—not because they're dictated or incentivized, but because they're embedded in our social and physical landscapes.