Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-08-21
Abstract： Voluntary simplicity is a lifestyle in which individuals attain inner abundance and fulfillment in the process of simplifying their external lives, as to give up the possession and satisfaction of physical materials. Instead of living under stress, growing numbers of young people value life quality more and turn to a voluntary simplicity that allows a better qualitative life. Particularly during the covid-19 epidemic, consumers' lifestyles and consumption patterns have shifted, with increased acceptance of online purchases and reduced material needs in response to the risk of outings. Voluntary simplicity has emerged as an important lifestyle, and to explore the definition, influences and consequences of this lifestyle, this review is arranged as follows： First, the definition of voluntary simplicity was clarified in two aspects of personal behavioral patterns and values, then this lifestyle was distinguished with similar concepts. (1) The main difference between voluntary simplicity and green consumption lies in the quantity of consumption, where avoiding excessive consumption is one of the goals of voluntary simplifiers, rather than green consumers; (2) The difference between voluntary simplicity and minimalism centralized on the nature of consumption, compared with minimalists, voluntary simplifiers attach greater importance to the conservation of environment and stronger ecological consciousness. Second, the influencing factors of voluntary simplicity were profiled from both macro-environmental and micro-individual perspectives. At the macro-environmental perspective, culture exerts a significant influence on consumers' purchasing behavior, with studies showing that consumers in collectivist cultures exhibit more pro-environmental behavior. In addition, the outbreak of Covid-19 epidemic has somewhat reduced individuals’ consumption desire, which provides a specific time context for the emergence of voluntary simplicity. At the micro-individual perspective, individuals may choose voluntary simplicity to satisfy different psychological needs, which can be theoretically supported in reference to need theory and self-determination theory; also, consumers may be motivated by different personal values to shift their lifestyles, such as altruism and green consumption values. However, the current study overlooked personality which is a more reliable predictor; future studies should consider exploring the motivations of voluntary simplicity from the perspective of personality traits and conducting research in different cultural contexts to verify whether the mechanism is cross-culturally consistent. Finally, the effects of voluntary simplicity on the environment and individuals were also compiled. Voluntary simplifiers highly value the ecological consequences of their purchases, and emphasize on self-sufficiency and moderate consumption, which have a positive impact on environmental sustainability. The higher the degree of voluntary simplicity consumers have, the less ecological consequences of their consumption behavior and the more friendly to environmental sustainability. The higher the degree of voluntary simplicity consumers have, the less ecological consequences of their consumption behavior and the more friendly to environmental sustainability. Researches have shown that controlling consumption desires and satisfying psychological needs are important factors in explaining the relationship between voluntary simplicity and life satisfaction, yet the mechanisms underlying this positive effect of voluntary simplicity remain inconclusive. Future research should be conducted to investigate empirically the multiple effects of voluntary simplicity and further explore potential mechanisms between voluntary simplicity and its positive or negative effects.
Hits
YES
Hits
Downloads
Comment