A study by Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto suggests that people who are exposed to green products, under certain circumstances, may then give themselves permission to slack off.
This result reminded me a lot of Catholic confession and the power that guilt and redemption have over our decision-making. Specifically, a couple questions come to mind:
- How much of current green purchasing is due to feelings of guilt rather than the functional qualities of the product itself?
- If guilt is the prime reason why people are buying green products today, could there be a guilt backlash like there was with religion?
via Schumpeter’s Century: When Green Consumption is Bad.
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