Does Environmental Awareness Promote Sustainable Consumption? The Moderating Roles of Generation and Socioeconomic Status

Overconsumption has become a major global environmental challenge because it contributes to resource depletion, pollution, and environmental degradation. Although previous research has found that environmental awareness is associated with sustainable consumption, it remains unclear whether this relationship differs across demographic groups such as generation and socioeconomic status. This study examined how environmental awareness predicts sustainable consumption among individuals across multiple countries, hypothesizing that this relationship would be moderated by individuals’ generation and socioeconomic status. Using secondary data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Environment I–IV Cumulation Dataset, this study analyzed 106,625 respondents from multiple countries. The study used descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression models with interaction terms to test the hypotheses. The results showed that environmental awareness significantly and positively predicted sustainable consumption. Socioeconomic status moderated this relationship, indicating that the positive effect of environmental awareness is stronger for higher-income groups. Generation also significantly moderated this relationship, suggesting that the positive relationship between environmental awareness and sustainable consumption is weaker among older generations. These findings suggest that although environmental awareness promotes sustainable consumption, its impact varies across demographic and socioeconomic groups. Therefore, policymakers, educators, and environmental organizations should develop targeted sustainability initiatives that account for generational and socioeconomic differences to encourage more environmentally responsible consumer behavior.