Faculty Spotlight: Professor June Cotte

In their paper “Cyclical Time is Greener: The Impact of Temporal Perspective on Pro-Environmental Behavior”, published by the Journal of Consumer Research, June Cotte in collaboration with Lan Xu (Wuhan University), Shuangshuang Zhao (Northwest A&F University) and Nan Cui (Wuhan University) research how diverse time perceptions have an impact on our consumer interactions with environmentally-friendly products and services.

In the Q&A below, June discusses what prompted the research, the key findings, and the potential impact the field of sustainable consumer behaviour.

How did you get started in this area of research?

At the beginning of my academic journey, my doctoral dissertation dove deep into the intriguing realm of people’s timestyles -the various ways people think about time. This fascination with time-related consumer behaviors has remained an interest throughout my scholarly journey. Over the years I’ve also worked on several projects that explored environmental attitudes and behaviors. The originator of this project was Lan Xu, a marketing professor from Wuhan University in China. Lan, whom I had the privilege of hosting as a visiting scholar at Ivey, brought forth the ingenious idea of uniting these two concepts – time perception and environmental consciousness – in an academic synergy that promised fresh insights in both areas.

What problem are you trying to solve?

An ongoing and pressing problem in the sustainable consumer behavior area is how to motivate consumers to act in a more environmentally friendly way. This is the core issue we addressed in our research. There is a connection between our perception of time and space, and how we deal with the environment around us. Theoretically, this is a fascinating intersection where consumer psychology meets environmental consciousness. Practically, many organizations aim to promote green products and encourage more sustainable behaviour. Therefore, the question that lingered in our minds was: How can marketers use our research to empower consumers to make eco-friendly choices?

What did you find?

Individuals who perceive time in a circular manner link time to reoccurring natural cycles such as the changing of seasons (e.g., “what goes around comes around”), while those with a linear view of time see it as more of a continuous trajectory extending from the past into the future (e.g., “you can never step in the same river twice”). For example, metaphors such as “time is a wheel” or “time is a pendulum” reflect a circular and reoccurring view of time, while metaphors such as “time is an arrow” or “time is a river” reflect more of a linear, forward-moving view of time. There are both cultural and individual influences on temporal perspective, but we are less interested in the causes, and more interested in the effects of temporal perspective. We found that temporal perspective -whether one thinks of time in a more linear way, or in a more circular way- is a novel driver of sustainable consumer behavior. We showed that this is because temporal perspective influences how much one thinks of themselves as integrated with the environment around them. We also found that this effect is less strong for those consumers already very high on green/environmental values. Behaviorally, our evidence reveals the profound impact of a cyclical temporal perspective on a wide range of sustainable consumption activities, encompassing everything from product purchase to daily use and disposal. We built this theory and then tested it, so our results weren’t necessarily surprising, but they do lead to some interesting implications for marketers.

What has been the impact?

We demonstrated that marketers can use temporal perspective as a method to promote consumers’ pro-environmental behavior by identifying consumers’ temporal perspective and tailoring marketing communications to this perspective. They could also design situational cues, such as pictures or slogans, to lead consumers to think of time more cyclically, which would encourage pro-environmental consumption for consumers low in green values (which is most consumers.) This strategy is effective because consumers are more inclined to purchase environmentally friendly products when exposed to a marketing message that matches their own temporal perspective. For those with a cyclical perspective, firms could adopt a “benefit for the environment” appeal, while for consumers with a linear perspective, a “benefit for the self” appeal can be used in their environmental initiatives.

What’s next for you?

 Well, I have always had a really varied research portfolio, and that certainly hasn’t changed! I am currently working on several projects in very different areas from this one, including one with Ivey colleagues on married couples and consumer debt, one with a former Ivey doctoral student on review systems in peer-to-peer sharing platforms, and another that looks at gender and crowdfunding success for entrepreneurs.