KCG Researchers Joined the 2018 ICAR Symposium “Anti-Consumption – beyond Boundaries” in Spain

The 2018 ICAR Symposium with the overarching theme “Anti-Consumption – beyond boundaries” took place on November 9-10, 2018 in Almería, Spain. ICAR, the International Centre of Anti-Consumption, is a network hosted by the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and led by Dr. Michael Lee, KCG External Research Fellow. It is a network of academics, practitioners, and social scientists from different countries who are interested in investigating and better understanding anti-consumption. Lee did not only co-organise the symposium with colleagues from the University of Almería but also gave a presentation based on his current research concerning choice overload and consumers’ boycott behaviour.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Hoffmann, KCG Senior Research Fellow and Project Co-Head, also participated in the symposium. His presentations focused on providing new research insights into social moral licensing and the impact of anti-consumption and personal values on subjective well-being. Also related to the issue of moral licensing, KCG PhD Researcher Nils Christian Hoffmann presented his current work “Sin Tax: How Governmental Regulations to Foster Anti-Consumption Backfire”. His empirical analysis showed that, under certain circumstances, a tax on meat products that aims at decreasing meat consumption might evoke backfiring effects due to moral licensing of individuals.

The symposium was kept small in size in order to facilitate intensive knowledge exchange and discussions among the participants. There KCG researchers received valuable comments and suggestions from other experts in the field of marketing and consumer behaviour for their ongoing and future research.