Title: Exploring behavioural psychology to support design for sustainable behaviour research

Authors: Johannes Zachrisson; Casper Boks

Addresses: Department of Product Design, Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, KolbjørnHejesvei 2b, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway. ' Department of Product Design, Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, KolbjørnHejesvei 2b, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway

Abstract: Increased focus in research on the environmental consequences of behaviour and product use in the last decade has resulted in a number of proposed different design strategies that may stimulate desired behavioural patterns or help avoiding undesired ones. Although this provides understanding of how behaviour may be changed, there has been limited discussion about how to choose and apply the different strategies depending on the context. This paper aims to investigate how behavioural models and theories from social psychology can contribute to this discussion. The analysis is based on an identification of different factors that affect behaviour and a distribution of design strategies according to how they divide control between the user and the product. By investigating how variation in the division of control may be related to the factors affecting behaviour, a number of principles for selecting strategies may be derived.

Keywords: sustainability; sustainable behaviour; social psychology; design research; environmental consequences; product use; design strategies; desired behavioural patterns; context; behavioural factors; design strategy distribution; user control; selecting strategy principles.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2012.046139

Journal of Design Research, 2012 Vol.10 No.1/2, pp.50 - 66

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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