ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1537410
Wastophobia: The Driver of E-Waste Management
Provisionally accepted
- 1Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China
- 2Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Liaoning Province, China
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The rapid growth of technological advancements is boosting planned obsolescence behavior, subsequently reducing the lifecycle of electronic products, and raising electronic waste (E-waste) concerns globally. Considering this dilemma, this study aims to explore the antecedents and consequences of wastophobia to promote sustainable consumption behavior, mitigate e-waste, and enhance environmental performance. Data were collected from the electronics industry consumers (n = 302) and analyzed through structural equation modeling via SPSS and AMOS-26. The results found two fundamental antecedents of wastophobia, including awareness of wasteful consumption and awareness of consequences, which are interrelated but distinct constructs. Together, these determinants significantly cultivated wastophobia in consumer behavior. Moreover, heightened wastophobia has impacted significantly positively on multiple behavioral outcomes, including creative performance, moral courage, and pro-environmental behavior (except for consumer advocacy). The elevated wastophobia rooted in emotions, such as dismay, culpability, and decrepit significantly improves the usability cycle of products, reduces planned obsolescence, e-waste, and consequently enhances environmental performance. This study suggests stakeholders (consumers, organizations, governments, and society) to promote wastophobia culture at societal (community and organizations), national, and global levels to minimize e-waste.
Keywords: Awareness of consequences, Creative performance, moral courage, pro-environmental behavior, Wastophobia
Received: 30 Nov 2024; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hanif, Zhang and Nawaz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Muhammad Wasif Hanif, Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, Liaoning Province, China
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