Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/306665 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Consumer Policy [ISSN:] 1573-0700 [Volume:] 46 [Issue:] 2 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 155-189
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
While there exists recent research about greenwashing in the context of branding and product packaging as well as advertising, we investigated greenwashing detection depending on the cues colour and price of the product itself. We hypothesized: The more the product cues fit to the mental representation of the corresponding category-prototype of bio (or non-bio) products, the more likely consumers classify the product to that category, are confident with the classification-decision and actually get deceived. In two studies, female consumers were asked to classify actual bio and actual non-bio fashion products from online shops as bio or faked bio. The bio-typicality of the colour of the product (Studies 1 and 2) and the price-level of the product (Study 1) were systematically varied. According to our assumptions, the probability to classify a product as bio or non-bio was higher when these product cues fitted to the expected status of the product. Furthermore, consumers reached higher classification accuracy when the colour (and the price) of the product fitted the actual status of the product. Unexpectedly, effects were independent from consumers' varying ecological context experience. Concluding, consumers got "successfully" greenwashed by just a bio-typical product colour and a high price what highlights the importance of stronger political regulations in the B2C sales market.
Subjects: 
Greenwashing detection
Visual product cues
Match fit bias
Consumer classification judgment behaviour
Eco fashion
Consumer experience
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.