SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIPS: An empirical study into matched sustainable behaviour within married and cohabiting opposite sex couples living in the UK

This is an exploratory study into the behaviour of people living in the same household. Through it I have two main aims. The first is to discover the extent to which two people living in the same household follow the same sustainable or non-sustainable household behaviours. The second is to try and explain this behaviour by testing three particular theories for correlated behaviour suggested by Manksi (1993). Using Understanding Society, a nationally representative study of households in the UK, I examine the sustainable behaviour of over 7,000 married or cohabiting couples. My findings suggest that couples behave similarly. The first theory for this behaviour is that they face a common set of enablers or constraints to sustainable behaviour and I find this explanation has some value with respect to heating, electricity and water use in the home. The second theory suggests couples support each other’s views making them more or less likely to behave similarly. Here I find that individual probability of either behaving more or less sustainably is increased when couples agree on climate change giving some support to this explanation. The third theory suggests that common sustainable practices in the home are the result of within couple influence. Through a mechanism which I refer to as ideological exchange, I find that where couples are ideologically opposed to each other, for certain behaviours, increased social exchange results in a higher probability of matched behaviour. Interestingly, differences in the effects observed, suggests that the outcome of any interaction is also determined by household responsibilities held.