Why Some People Go Green – and Others Don't

…It may seem that all Prius drivers are Democrats and that Republicans are behind the wheels of Hummers, but a new book from Duke University social scientists Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton argues that political affiliation has very little to do with consumer decisions. In You Are What You Choose, de Marchi and Hamilton make the case that green consumerism–along with many other consumer habits–is largely determined by basic personality traits, not political beliefs.

Economists have long studied a few personality traits that play into consumer and financial decisions. How careful are consumers about risk? How much information does a consumer seek out before making a purchase? These traits tend to vary greatly from one person to the next. So de Marchi and Hamilton decided to look beyond what people bought and consider their personalities and habits. Each survey question counted as a mark toward or against a certain trait. Someone who said he or she always slows down for a yellow light, for example, would score more strongly as a person with a risk-averse trait. Someone who doesn’t like to try new restaurants and instead sticks to old favorites would score high with the “stickiness” personality trait.

Armed with data on the personality traits of individuals, the authors then examined a range of everyday decisions–from what people buy to whom they vote for–and analyzed their choices to see how much of their decision-making differences were caused by differing personality traits. “We’re better at predicting how you vote than if we asked about your policy opinions,” de Marchi says. So–to use one prominent example from the book–what kind of a person is a green consumer?

US News & World Report