The advent of the circular economy has repurposed traditional consumption habits. It is expanding opportunities for consumers to preserve the ecosystem throughout the whole product lifecycle. Drawing from extant rational and moral theories in behavior change, this research extends the understanding of consumer involvement in the circular economy by investigating whether being exposed to “green” clues can trigger additional information seeking and be empowering to people to contribute to the circular economy. In contrast to some prior research that suggests that information can overload consumers, this research finds that these “green” clues can stimulate greater information seeking, which can make the consumer feel more capable of effecting change through circular economy consumption. This study draws a conceptual model for behavioral change, tested on a representative sample of 4161 individuals across the five largest European countries. Results show that external “green” clues prompt consumers' information search on product lifecycle and ultimately make them feel empowered to contribute to the circular economy. Overall the research suggests that sustainability information can stimulate heightened curiosity and encourage consumers to become willing and active participants in this burgeoning circular economy.

中文翻译：

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对循环经济感到好奇？对产品生命周期信息搜索的内部和外部影响

循环经济的到来改变了传统的消费习惯。它正在扩大消费者在整个产品生命周期中保护生态系统的机会。借鉴现存的行为改变的理性和道德理论，本研究通过调查暴露于“绿色”线索是否会触发额外的信息寻求并增强人们为循环经济做出贡献的能力，从而扩展了对消费者参与循环经济的理解。与之前一些表明信息会使消费者超负荷的研究相反，本研究发现，这些“绿色”线索可以刺激更多的信息搜索，这可以使消费者感觉更有能力通过循环经济消费来实现变革。本研究绘制了一个行为改变的概念模型，对五个最大的欧洲国家的 4161 个人的代表性样本进行了测试。结果表明，外部“绿色”线索促使消费者搜索有关产品生命周期的信息，并最终使他们感到有能力为循环经济做出贡献。总体而言，研究表明，可持续性信息可以激发更高的好奇心，并鼓励消费者成为这个蓬勃发展的循环经济中愿意和积极的参与者。