Money & society · 2024
What reasons do people give for continuing to use a product rather than replacing it?
Sentimental attachment, satisfaction, lasting value, attention to cost, and a preference for keeping things as they are emerged as reasons to keep using products. These themes came from exploratory interviews in English and Arabic with people of different nationalities. The study focused on valuing and continuing to use functional, energy-efficient products; it did not test which reasons actually cause people to keep them longer.
Details
The researchers explored what they call “product appreciation”: valuing a product that works and is energy-efficient, and continuing to use it. They analyzed in-depth interviews to identify recurring motivations and barriers, rather than testing an intervention or comparing assigned groups.
The motivation themes covered sentimental attachment, satisfaction, positive engagement with the product, clever design and enduring value, attention to cost, and a tendency to retain things or stick with the current situation. Barriers included changing preferences, dissatisfaction, wanting something new, and opportunities for free upgrades. The findings therefore concern more than emotional attachment: practical judgments and the appeal of replacement also featured in the analysis.
The study offers a framework for understanding why people may keep using products. However, the abstract gives no participant count or demographic detail beyond differing nationalities, and it does not establish how common or influential each motivation is. It also does not report measured extensions in product life or reductions in resource use.
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