Summary

Fast fashion has produced ubiquitous textile waste, clogging landfills and contributing to climate change. This study examined whether deadlines could reduce procrastination in alternative clothing disposal to two sources: retailer take-back programmes and charity shops. Deadlines have been successful behavioural interventions for procrastination in personal benefit tasks, but less successful for charitable giving where benefits are indirect. Construal level was hypothesized as a mechanism behind the deadline effect.

Results

Using a 2×2 randomized control experiment, varying the deadline and donation recipient, the study found deadlines ineffective. In line with the literature, deadlines appear unsuitable for clothing take-backs and donations without direct benefits. Participants were more likely to opt-into charity shop donations than retailer programmes under a deadline. Unrelated to deadlines, construal level predicted the likelihood of donation follow through. While future research should include a monetary benefit for the retailer programme to investigate loss aversion as a mechanism for deadline effectiveness, other interventions should be explored to promote charity shop donations, for which deadlines are likely unsuitable.

This complete work is available upon request.