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How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption

In a so-called overpopulated world, sustainable consumption is of existential importance. However, the expanding spectrum of product choices and their production complexity challenge consumers to make informed and value-sensitive decisions. Recent approaches based on (personalized) psychological man...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Asikis, Thomas, Klinglmayr, Johannes, Helbing, Dirk, Pournaras, Evangelos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7890503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33614080
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201418
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author Asikis, Thomas
Klinglmayr, Johannes
Helbing, Dirk
Pournaras, Evangelos
author_facet Asikis, Thomas
Klinglmayr, Johannes
Helbing, Dirk
Pournaras, Evangelos
author_sort Asikis, Thomas
collection PubMed
description In a so-called overpopulated world, sustainable consumption is of existential importance. However, the expanding spectrum of product choices and their production complexity challenge consumers to make informed and value-sensitive decisions. Recent approaches based on (personalized) psychological manipulation are often intransparent, potentially privacy-invasive and inconsistent with (informational) self-determination. By contrast, responsible consumption based on informed choices currently requires reasoning to an extent that tends to overwhelm human cognitive capacity. As a result, a collective shift towards sustainable consumption remains a grand challenge. Here, we demonstrate a novel personal shopping assistant implemented as a smart phone app that supports a value-sensitive design and leverages sustainability awareness, using experts’ knowledge and ‘wisdom of the crowd’ for transparent product information and explainable product ratings. Real-world field experiments in two supermarkets confirm higher sustainability awareness and a bottom-up behavioural shift towards more sustainable consumption. These results encourage novel business models for retailers and producers, ethically aligned with consumer preferences and with higher sustainability.
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spelling pubmed-78905032021-02-18 How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption Asikis, Thomas Klinglmayr, Johannes Helbing, Dirk Pournaras, Evangelos R Soc Open Sci Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence In a so-called overpopulated world, sustainable consumption is of existential importance. However, the expanding spectrum of product choices and their production complexity challenge consumers to make informed and value-sensitive decisions. Recent approaches based on (personalized) psychological manipulation are often intransparent, potentially privacy-invasive and inconsistent with (informational) self-determination. By contrast, responsible consumption based on informed choices currently requires reasoning to an extent that tends to overwhelm human cognitive capacity. As a result, a collective shift towards sustainable consumption remains a grand challenge. Here, we demonstrate a novel personal shopping assistant implemented as a smart phone app that supports a value-sensitive design and leverages sustainability awareness, using experts’ knowledge and ‘wisdom of the crowd’ for transparent product information and explainable product ratings. Real-world field experiments in two supermarkets confirm higher sustainability awareness and a bottom-up behavioural shift towards more sustainable consumption. These results encourage novel business models for retailers and producers, ethically aligned with consumer preferences and with higher sustainability. The Royal Society 2021-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7890503/ /pubmed/33614080 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201418 Text en © 2021 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Asikis, Thomas
Klinglmayr, Johannes
Helbing, Dirk
Pournaras, Evangelos
How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
title How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
title_full How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
title_fullStr How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
title_full_unstemmed How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
title_short How value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
title_sort how value-sensitive design can empower sustainable consumption
topic Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7890503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33614080
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201418
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