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Turinex: A Social Science Tool to Help Understand and Predict Sustainable Consumption

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Version 3 2014-04-07, 04:08
Version 2 2014-04-07, 04:08
journal contribution
posted on 2014-04-07, 04:08 authored by Proc. ISSSTProc. ISSST, Andrew BerardyAndrew Berardy, Thomas P SeagerThomas P Seager, Evan Selinger, Russell Uhl

Expertise exists and is developed in stages representing unique ranges along a continuum starting at novice and culminating at expert. Consumers must decipher the truth behind competing claims of environmental and social responsibility. Over time, those who are consistently conscientious regarding their purchasing decisions form a new expertise of sustainable consumption. For example, a person who decides to become vegan will gain knowledge and experience over time in all aspects of their life, leading to the acquisition of expertise in being vegan. This paper presents a case study of expertise in vegans, using a software program developed for determining levels of expertise, TURINEX (Test of Ubiquitous through Real or Interactional Expertise), to demonstrate that long-term vegans are in fact expert vegans. Testing vegan participants against vegetarian subjects and against omnivores using TURINEX has the potential to establish vegans as having skill and knowledge relevant to their field, or “vegan expertise,” and may also show that such expertise exists and develops along a continuum. TURINEX testing involves a judge from the “target expertise” of veganism asking questions of their own making via computer to isolated participants (one vegan, one vegetarian and one omnivore) who are told to pretend to be vegans (or in the case of the vegan, to answer naturally). After a number of tests, if the judges are consistently able to correctly identify vegans, vegetarians and omnivores, then there is support for the idea that veganism is an expertise. Transcripts of the sessions are then analyzed to find out what motivates the high levels of dedication exhibited by many vegans. Despite a low number of initial tests, preliminary results demonstrate that the software is functional, research subjects understand the protocol, and results can be interpreted both qualitatively and quantitatively. As more tests are performed, the question of veganism as an expertise existing along a continuum will either be supported or contradicted by results. Analysis of transcripts should also provide insight into what might motivate sustainable consumption.

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