Promoting Clothing Repair With In-Person Workshops A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

Repair can help extend clothing lifecycles. However, clothing repair is infrequent in high-income countries, especially among young adults who often lack practical repair skills. In this quasi-experiment, we tested whether a group workshop could motivate repair and reduce consumption in young adults. Participants were assigned to a skill-based workshop (n = 62) or a control group (n = 51) that only received a persuasive message about clothing repair. The workshop strongly increased self-efficacy both immediately after the workshop and 4 weeks later. The workshop did not impact environmental attitudes or emotions associated with repair, but workshop participants identified more with others who repair and reported moderately higher intentions to repair their clothes (but these effects were only short-term). The workshop did not increase the number of self-reported repairs nor reduce purchases 4 weeks later. There was some evidence for lower disposals at follow-up (but the effect was uncertain). A single workshop may thus spark motivation but not materialise in behaviour changes 4 weeks later. This study highlights that hands-on practice can boost self-efficacy and demonstrates how quasi-experimental designs with follow-up surveys can contribute to understanding the potential of behavioural interventions.