Consumer choices reflect not only price and quality preferences but also social and moral values, as witnessed in the remarkable growth of the global market for organic and environmentally friendly products. What is not sufficiently understood is how green consumption fits into people’s global sense of social responsibility and morality and affects behaviours outside the consumption domain.
On the basis of recent theories in behavioural priming and moral regulation, the authors of this article, Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong argue that mere exposure to green products and the purchase of such products will have markedly different effects on subsequent behaviours. Whereas mere exposure can activate concepts related to social responsibility and ethical conduct and induce corresponding behaviours, purchasing green products may produce the counterintuitive effect of licensing asocial and unethical behaviours by establishing moral credentials. Thus, green products do not necessarily make for better people.
Mazar & Zhong conducted three experiments to test their predictions. Experiment 1 established that people attach higher social and ethical values to green than to conventional consumerism. Experiment 2 demonstrated that mere exposure to green products and purchase of green products have opposing effects on altruistic behaviour. Finally, Experiment 3 extended the licensing effect of purchasing green products to clear ethical violations: cheating and stealing money. Together, these studies suggest that consumption is more tightly connected to the social and moral self than previously thought.
Click here to read this article from Psychological science
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im up to this.. nature is very remarkable so its up to us so that we'll be able to preserve nature at it's best.
Posted by: kartenlegen | 16 April 2010 at 03:22