The role of emotional coherence in electric vehicle purchasing decisions

Cognitive consistency theories offer a solid background to understand the effects of latent psychological constructs in decision-making. These theories model decision-making as the product of a dynamic and recursive process in which individual elements are evaluated toward a decision and this emerging decision returns to its individual elements. In this study, we use the Hot Coherence (HOTCO) cognitive consistency theory to analyse the choice between electric, hybrid-electric, and petrol vehicles. We apply the model to a sample of respondents from England households with one or more cars. The HOTCO model offers a more nuanced representation of the decision-making process – compared with traditional attitude-behaviour link theories – by incorporating non-linear and multidimensional interactions between its components. Our results suggest that positive attitudes and emotional appraisals for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles are shaped by similar motivators, and respondents perceive them as capable of satisfying the same set of needs. In addition, environmental awareness and pro-innovative orientation are the two motives that generate the greater differences in attitudinal evaluations of petrol vehicles, compared with alternative fuels.