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Fast or fair fashion? Experimental evidence on psychological drivers of perceived sustainability and consumption intention
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Experimental studies found that fabric material (especially polyester vs. cotton), price signals, and design style all shape consumers' perceived sustainability and purchase intent for clothing, with information about polyester's environmental harm shifting attitudes. These findings reveal psychological levers that could inform campaigns promoting fair fashion over fast fashion to reduce plastic textile pollution.
The fast fashion industry causes substantial environmental harm. To promote a transition toward fair fashion, understanding and targeting the psychological factors influencing clothing consumption is crucial. To this end, two online experimental vignette studies were conducted, where participants rated perceived sustainability or purchase intention in an online shop scenario. The clothing items varied systematically regarding three product factors: material (polyester, recycled polyester, cotton, organic cotton), price (low, high), and design (trendy, timeless). Experiment 1 revealed distinct patterns of influence of the three product factors on perceived sustainability ( n 1 = 116) and purchase intention ( n 2 = 114). Garments made of cotton were perceived as more sustainable and more likely to be purchased than those made of polyester, with organic cotton and recycled polyester outperforming their conventional counterparts. Low-priced items were perceived as less sustainable but associated with higher purchase intention compared to high-priced items. Timeless designs were rated as more sustainable than trendy designs, yet intended consumption did not differ between designs. In Experiment 2, participants were provided with informational texts before the vignettes detailing the relationship between environmental harm and low price ( n 1 = 44), short-lived design trends ( n 2 = 37), or polyester material (control group; n 3 = 42). The design intervention reduced the intended consumption for trendy items compared to the control group, while the price intervention showed no corresponding reduction for low-priced items. These findings highlight the role of product attributes and heuristics in sustainable fashion purchase intention, offering implications for sustainable consumption research and practice.
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