People buy environmental goods to improve their social status new research suggests.
Anything from greener cars, to domestic products and fair trade food are bought as a status symbol, the new study, co-authored by Dr. Bram Van den Bergh, Assistant-Professor at Rotterdam School of Management concludes.
According to the research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people are willing to buy products such as hybrid cars even though it might mean sacrificing performance in favour of environmental status.
Additionally, as many environmentally-friendly products are more costly than traditional counterparts, such products allow buyers to display their wealth while communicating altruism.
The researchers studied the way in which consumers selected products. According to the Guardian, in one experiment, 168 students were split into two groups. One group were told a story about social status while a second group read a story without a status message. Asked to make a hypothetical purchasing decision between a green car or a non-green model of the same price but more luxurious and better-performing, 37.2 per cent in the control group chose the green car. That figure rose to 54.5 per cent for those who read the story designed to ‘activate status motives.’
The authors claim that this experiment demonstrates that playing on desire for social status is a way to encourage people to make green choices.
The results suggest that when people shop online, they tend to favour high quality products that make them feel comfortable, but when shopping in public, they are willing to spend more on lower quality green products if those purchases make them appear to be caring and altruistic to others.
Dr. Van den Bergh says one of the best examples of this is the Toyota Prius, which essentially functions as a mobile, self-promoting billboard for pro-environmentalism.
“Driving a luxurious non-green car, like a Hummer, communicates one’s wealth, but also suggests that the buyer is a selfish and uncaring individual who is concerned primarily about his own comfort rather than the welfare of society. Driving a hybrid, like a Prius, does not only displays one’s wealth as it costs many thousands of Euros more than a conventional but highly fuel-efficient car, but also signals the owner cares about others and the environment,” said Van den Bergh.
The study also shows that status motives increased desirability of green products, especially when such products cost more—but not less—relative to non-green products, as is the case of the Prius.
The study entitled ‘Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation’, was co-authored with Vladas Griskevicius from the University of Minnesota and Joshua M. Tybur from the University of New Mexico.
