The relation between character strengths and sustainable consumption

The study's main goal was to investigate the relationship between character strengths and sustainable consumption. Moreover, the study investigated differences in character strengths between individuals who follow vegan/vegetarian diets and those who are omnivores. Participants were 203 adults between 18 and 68 years. Significant correlations were found between sustainable consumption of food and the character strengths of kindness, forgiveness, curiosity, love of learning, prudence, zest,and judgment, and between sustainable consumption of clothes and the character strengths of hope, kindness, love, curiosity, love of learning, gratitude, and zest. Sustainable consumption towards food was predicted by spirituality, curiosity, and diet preference, and sustainable consumption towards clothes by spirituality, curiosity, and diet preference. To conclude, the study has revealed some relations between character strengths and sustainable consumption, hinting those inner transformational qualities could be important to behave sustainable. However, the relations are weak. This study can only be seen as a first step towards a deeper analysis of internal transformative qualities for sustainable behavior. However, more well-powered intervention studies must be conducted when the role of the internal transformative qualities are more emphasized in environmental research.