I’ve signed my soul away to Co-Star. If my ‘day at a glance’ doesn’t reflect what’s going on in my life, be sure – I’ll make it. I’ll find any inkling of relevance in that hyper-philosophised yet borderline nonsensical one liner and apply it to even the most mundane of daily occurrences.
The other day, my DAAG read: “What we do is never understood but always only praised or censured.” See what I mean? Philosophical. Anyway, this particular horoscope (is it a horoscope? I don’t really know) *daily update/statement (as you will) reminded me of something I’d recently read which suggested our actions are based on how the people around us will respond. Reaction is a psychological currency that either rewards and therefore reinforces a behaviour (as Co-Star puts it, praises) or punishes and deters repetition (… censures).
Co-Star got me thinking. How does this coincide with conversations surrounding fashion’s impact? What really influences us to buy the things we buy? And, if fashion is a hook, how can it be used to leverage positive behavioural changes that lessen the industry’s impact?
Zalando conducted a study in 2021 which I’ve been banging on about quite a lot recently. This study revealed the attitude-behaviour gap between respondents’ sustainability intentions and their actions. 60% of respondents said transparency was important to them but only 20% actively sought out information when purchasing and 53% believed ethical labour policies were important but only 23% investigated said policies et cetera, I’ll let you read it.
Brittany Sierra unpicks the data for the Sustainable Fashion Forum, considering consumer behaviour from a psychological standpoint. Sierra pinpoints different factors that come to play when shopping that might interfere with intention. These include self-expression, the persuasive tactics of retailers, insecurities, cost, size, accessibility, just simply feeling good – and lusting to feel like one belongs.
It’s often assumed that behaviours are the result of internal influences – attitudes, values, preferences and whatnot. But, psychologists Burrhus Skinner and Kurt Lewin would disagree, both believing that a situation can, and often will, override these internal influences. There are all sorts of cues and external influences such as social expectations and cultural conventions and consequences associated with a ‘situation’. It’s the consequence that will either reinforce or punish (praise or censure) which then influences whether the action is repeated.
Consequences can be short or long-term. Generally speaking, humans, being a pretty hedonistic bunch, act to garner the most pleasure possible on an immediate basis, valuing shorter-term consequences which benefit the individual (like looking hot as sh*t) even if there are distant punishers that might harm a group (like climate collapse).
A consequence doesn’t have to be experienced first hand either. We can observe someone else up close or at a distance and it will have the same effect. How one interprets a consequence is subjective and easily influenced by who is present. This is where social etiquette and conformity come to play. Our desire to fit in, to belong, for social status can massively engineer our behaviour.
Our intention might be to do good by the planet and buy a secondhand pair of, I don’t know, adidas track pants, but our action might actually be that, after realising it’s kind of hard to find the right pair, out of the sheer desire to look cool in front of (*insert name*) and be accepted by (*insert name*), we cave, buying them new.
The more that people see others doing things a certain way – researching where you’re buying from before buying, shopping second hand, upcycling, re-wearing clothes, for example – the more they come to accept it as the normal way to be, live, shop and do. Individual behaviour changes are socially contagious. We conform because other people’s opinions of us matter. The power of which is often underestimated, perhaps out of the belief that we have autonomy over our actions and, I suppose, to some degree denial that we don’t.
Can we utilise this knowledge, the concept of how heavily praise or punishment influences our actions, to re-calibrate intention and action and motivate sustainable behaviour in fashion? What are the punishers that are currently discouraging sustainable behaviours and the reinforcers keeping unsustainable practice in place? How can we bring short and long-term consequences together? Lots of questions, no answers for you. Sorry about that.
But, as Seirra says: “Instead of preaching “buy less, buy better,” we need to start thinking about consumer psychology and appeal to the psychological factors of why we buy what we buy.”
I’m rambling. I just thought it was quite timely of Co-Star. “What we do is never understood but always only praised or censured.” A little something to consider.