Research Design Connections: Encouraging Green Choices

Chernev and Blair’s research (four empirical studies) enriches previously derived insights related to encouraging the use of sustainable options.  They report that “Prior research has suggested that consumers believe that products made using sustainable, environmentally friendly technologies are likely to underperform those made using traditional methods. . . . we argue that sustainability is likely to produce a halo effect able to attenuate [reduce] and even override the negative impact of . . . inferences underlying consumers’ belief that sustainability comes at the expense of performance. . . . we identify two factors that are likely to influence the strength of the halo effect: the degree to which consumers view the company as a moral agent whose actions aim to benefit society and the degree to which moral concerns are prominent in consumers’ minds. . . . managers can increase the perceived performance of sustainable products: by associating sustainable benefits with the company rather than with its products and by emphasizing the societal benefits of sustainability.”

Alexander Chernev and Sean Blair.  “When Sustainability Is Not a Liability:  The Halo Effect of Marketplace Morality.”  Journal of Consumer Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1195

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.