Att köra eller inte köra : En studie av miljömedvetna bilisters dissonansreducerande- och identitetsupprätthållande strategier

Att köra eller inte köra is a qualitative study aiming to show how environmentally conscious people who utilizes cars deal with their dissonant behavior, but at the sametime maintain an identity as environmentally conscious. The study is based on the fact that a third of those who drive cars in the municipality of Växjö would like to decrease their use of cars while at the same time having the infrastructural conditions to utilize other means of transportation. The study investigates inner obstacles in the form of habits and lifestyle, but also the different strategies the motorists use to reduce their cognitive dissonance and maintain a green identity. The indicators show that the reason the majority of the motorists continue to utilize cars is part due to inner obstacles (it's adeeply rooted habit, but also a big part of their lifestyles), part due to that the individuals have defenses for their use of their cars, defenses designed to have a dissonance reducing effect. The indicators also show that the motorists value their family higher than the environment, and in this way they can legitimize many of their car uses. The study finds hints suggesting that the motorists associate good parenting with using cars and therefore risk another type of dissonance linked to parenthood if they should stop using cars. The majority of the motorists in the study have grown up in a rural environment suggesting that the car is a big part of a norm system linked to the motorists' cultural background, which in it self could be an explanation for why the individuals associate good parenting with the use of cars