Psychological Barriers to Sustainable Consumption: Behavioural Schemas in Environmental Decisions

Background: Many people express concern about climate change yet fail to act consistently on that concern. This study examines whether antagonistic and avoidant behavioural schemas—beyond environmental concern alone—are associated with responses to sustainable consumption. Methods: A sample of 378 adults completed 20 forced-choice vignettes (the behavioural domain of the Vignette-based Evaluation of Grandiose and Avoidant schemas, VEGA), together with the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI-28), Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and Social Desirability Scale (SDS-16). Results: The VEGA domain showed a two-factor structure (KMO = 0.77, Bartlett’s test p < 0.001), explaining 27.9% of the variance. Criterion validity was supported through behavioural decision-making vignettes (VN-6) (r = 0.32, p < 0.001, n = 349). Convergent validity with trait narcissism was weak but significant (r = 0.10, p = 0.050), and social desirability was not associated with the domain (r = −0.01, p = 0.892). Internal consistency was low (α = 0.58, ω = 0.21), reflecting the heterogeneity of the forced-choice items. Subgroup analyses showed consistent associations across demographic and psychological strata. Conclusions: Behavioural schemas appear to be associated with responses to sustainable consumption appeals, beyond environmental concern alone. The VEGA domain requires further refinement before informing sustainability interventions.