Minimalism as a sustainable lifestyle: Its behavioral representations and contributions to emotional well-being

The increasingly prevalent minimalism of individuals’ lifestyles and its broad impact on sustainability has largely been expressed as conjecture among journalists and bloggers; thus, neither a concrete empirical definition nor scientific evidence of its effects has yet been firmly established in the academic literature. We propose minimalism as a deliberate paradigm shift in consumer behavior based on the principle of a sustainable lifestyle and seek to provide its operationalization and evidence of its effects on emotional well-being. In Study 1, we explore how minimalism is structured by synthesizing existing measures of relevant constructs and other potential indicators that could represent the concept and formulate the operationalization of minimalism. In Study 2, we develop and test a structural model that depicts the effects of minimalism on positive emotion (flourishing) and negative emotion (depression). Highly valid data were collected from a nationwide consumer panel sample (N = 1,050), and a series of hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling were conducted for primary analytic methods. As a result, the second-order model of minimalism identifies and confirms the hierarchical structure of minimalism, which consists of four distinctive yet related behavioral representations: clutter removal, cautious shopping, longevity, and self-sufficiency. The results also indicate that minimalism enhances flourishing while alleviating depression. Our study opens the door for future research to deepen the understanding of minimalism and explore additional contributions that minimalism can make. Furthermore, our research provides a clear rationale as to why it is worthwhile for consumers to incorporate minimalism into their lifestyle, which can in turn motivate manufacturers and producers to seek more sustainable modes of production that accord with the minimalist lifestyle.