Green and Simple: Disclosures on Eco-labels Interact with Situational Constraints in Consumer Choice
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Green and Simple: Disclosures on Eco-labels Interact with Situational Constraints in Consumer Choice Á. Ní Choisdealbha 1 & P. D. Lunn 2 Received: 2 January 2020 / Accepted: 3 July 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
“Eco-labels” are intended to provide consumers with important environmental product information. However, it can be difficult for consumers to integrate multiple sources of information into decisions, especially in contexts such as grocery shopping in which consumers must make multiple decisions and juggle priorities, including time. Some disclosures on eco-labels may be easier to incorporate into decisions than others, but how the information is presented varies across countries. This research used a computerized shopping task to test how decisions are affected by the format and framing of eco-labels, including when made under time pressure. Results indicated that participants identified and chose more environmentally friendly products when information was formatted on a standardized, colour-coded scale rather than presented as specific, verbal information. Decisions were unaffected by whether disclosures were framed positively or negatively. The effect of format was enhanced under a time limit. These findings suggest that the context in which eco-labels are encountered influences how effective they are, with standardized, colour-coded scales suitable for communicating with busy consumers. Keywords Labelling . Disclosure . Eco-labels . Simplification Many grocery products have environmental impacts, and it is increasingly common for information about these impacts to be communicated via a label (Thøgersen 2000). This seems simple enough, yet the relevant decision-making context and psychological mechanisms involved are far from simple. The common act of completing a grocery list involves many decisions made over a short period of time, perhaps under time pressure. These decisions are made about products with multiple attributes, which often trade off against one another. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-02009465-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* P. D. Lunn [email protected]
1
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2
Economic and Social Research Institute & Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Á. Ní Choisdealbha, P. D. Lunn
Furthermore, many grocery products purchased during a large, perhaps weekly, household shopping trip will not be purchased for the individual who is making the purchase, but for family members who might be of different generations and may have different preferences, including for environmental attributes. The consumer decision-making context is not simple, but complex; consumers must juggle many things. This insight, which we substantiate with reference to previous literature below, has important implications for policies that aim to influence consumer choice through labels to communicat
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