What Drives Consumers’ Willingness to Make Sacrifices for Sustainability?

In the pursuit of sustainability, consumers often associate environmentally friendly behaviors with personal sacrifices, creating a barrier to sustainable consumption. This paper explores the drivers behind consumers’ willingness to make sacrifices (WTS) for sustainability, defining and conceptualizing consumer sacrifice within an environmental context. Drawing from existing research we develop a conceptual model that links perceived costs and benefits with WTS. We identify key individual and sociocultural factors, such as self-efficacy and trust, which influence WTS. This paper contributes to the literature by proposing a more holistic perspective on sustainable consumption and the perceived sacrifices involved, emphasizing the interplay be-tween costs, benefits, and contextual factors. The proposed framework provides a foundation for future empirical research on the complexities of consumer sacrifice for a sustainable future.