IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v3y2020i9d10.1038_s41893-020-0543-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour through green identity labelling

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Schwartz

    (University of Chile)

  • George Loewenstein

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

  • Loreto Agüero-Gaete

    (University of Chile)

Abstract

Promoting products for ‘green’ people has become an important strategy to encourage sustainable consumption. We test the effectiveness of the green identity labelling technique, which encourages pro-environmental purchases by associating them with an eco-friendly image. We conducted four experiments (online, laboratory and two field experiments) in which individuals could purchase green products that, in the treatment groups, were accompanied by a green identity label (for example, ‘this product is for green shoppers’). We find that the green identity labelling technique increases purchase of environmentally friendly products across the consumer settings examined in our experiments. We also examine factors that can moderate this effect. Green identity labels increase sales only if no price discount on the green product is advertised, and they have a bigger impact on people with demographics associated with pro-environmental values.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Schwartz & George Loewenstein & Loreto Agüero-Gaete, 2020. "Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour through green identity labelling," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(9), pages 746-752, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0543-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0543-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0543-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-020-0543-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martina Chalupová & Stanislav Rojík & Hana Kotoučková & Lenka Kauerová, 2020. "Food Labels (Quality, Origin, and Sustainability): The Experience of Czech Producers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Córdova, Angélica & Imas, Alex & Schwartz, Daniel, 2021. "Are non-contingent incentives more effective in motivating new behavior? Evidence from the field," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 602-615.
    3. Jacqueline Arriagada & Claudio Mena & Marcela Munizaga & Daniel Schwartz, 2023. "The effect of economic incentives and cooperation messages on user participation in crowdsourced public transport technologies," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1585-1612, October.
    4. Erik Hermann, 2022. "Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Marketing for Social Good—An Ethical Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 43-61, August.
    5. Ortega, David L. & Sun, Jiayu & Lin, Wen, 2022. "Identity labels as an instrument to reduce meat demand and encourage consumption of plant based and cultured meat alternatives in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. Hoffmann, Christin & Hoppe, Julia Amelie & Ziemann, Niklas, 2022. "Faster, harder, greener? Empirical evidence on the role of the individual Pace of Life for productivity and pro-environmental behavior," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    7. Barkemeyer, Ralf & Young, C. William & Chintakayala, Phani Kumar & Owen, Anne, 2023. "Eco-labels, conspicuous conservation and moral licensing: An indirect behavioural rebound effect," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    8. De Bauw, Michiel & Franssens, Samuel & Vranken, Liesbet, 2022. "Trading off environmental attributes in food consumption choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Lin, Wen & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2022. "Green identity labeling, environmental information, and pro-environmental food choices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    10. Chamila R. Perera & Hassan Kalantari & Lester W. Johnson, 2022. "Climate Change Beliefs, Personal Environmental Norms and Environmentally Conscious Behaviour Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Dominik Bär & Stefan Feuerriegel & Ting Li & Markus Weinmann, 2023. "Message framing to promote solar panels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Santa, Juana Castro & Drews, Stefan, 2023. "Heuristic processing of green advertising: Review and policy implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0543-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.