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, hybridelectric, 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.