Feedback as a guide or an excuse? A motivational account of providing effective pro-environmental consumption feedback

The practice of consumption feedback has been increasing lately, notably with respect to sustainable consumption (e.g., energy consumption, sustainability of people’s groceries shopping). However, research in psychology has shown that such feedback can have unexpected effects, sometimes motivating people to increase their efforts but also sometimes demotivating them and leading to a reduction of subsequent efforts. I propose here a motivational approach to understanding the effects of consumption feedback. I describe research showing that positive feedback can be construed either as a guide for future behaviour or as an excuse justifying a relaxation of further efforts. On this basis, I provide advice on how to develop effective feedbacks, both positive (i.e., informing someone that their current behaviour is actually quite sustainable) and negative (i.e., informing someone that their behaviour is not sustainable enough, or less sustainable than average).