Can Sustainable Consumption Be Learned

This paper shows how sustainable consumption patterns can spread within a population viaprocesses of social learning even though a strong individual learning bias may favorenvironmentally harmful products. We present a model depicting how the biased transmission ofdifferent behaviors via individual and social learning influences agents’ consumption behavior.The underlying learning biases can be traced back to evolved cognitive dispositions. Challengingthe vision of a permanent transition toward sustainability, we argue that “green” consumptionpatterns are not self-reinforcing and cannot be “locked in” permanently...