% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@ARTICLE{Voegele:889054,
author = {Voegele, Stefan and Broska, Lisa Hanna and Otte, Sebastian
and Rübbelke, Dirk},
title = {{W}hy the trend towards gas-guzzlers? {A} closer look at
the complex effects of social norms on {G}erman car buyers},
journal = {Energy research $\&$ social science},
volume = {72},
issn = {2214-6296},
address = {Amsterdam [u.a.]},
publisher = {Elsevier},
reportid = {FZJ-2020-05422},
pages = {101840 -},
year = {2021},
abstract = {Abstract: The transport sector is one of the major drivers
of global climate change, with a large share related to the
personal use of cars. Paradoxically, as efforts are
undertaken to reduce this share, a trend to buy large, heavy
cars with comparatively high fuel consumption is occurring
nearly worldwide. In this article, we analyze the possible
influence of social norms in car-buying decisions and in
particular in the trend towards sport utility vehicles
(SUVs). After giving a short introduction into the
theoretical foundations underlying this research, we develop
a model applying a multi-criteria decision analysis
approach. By using data from surveys conducted by VuMA
Touchpoints and ARAL, on German car buyers, preferences and
characteristics of the different social groups in German
society, as well as the ADAC on characteristics of different
car types, we quantify the influence of social norms on
car-buying decisions. Our results indicate that social norms
play a significant role in driving the demand for
heavyweight passenger cars across most social groups, while
the desire for social esteem leads some groups in particular
to purchase SUVs and off-road vehicles. By taking
society’s heterogeneity into account, we show that social
norms are group-specific and not universal in society,
though car choice is always to a certain extent influenced
by social norms and ranges from between $24\%$ and $42\%$ in
our model calculations. The novel approach taken in this
research can be applied beyond the mobility sector to other
environmentally significant consumer behaviors.},
cin = {IEK-STE},
ddc = {624},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IEK-STE-20101013},
pnm = {111 - Energiesystemtransformation (POF4-111)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-111},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
UT = {WOS:000624443900005},
doi = {10.1016/j.erss.2020.101840},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/889054},
}