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Buying green can sometimes license unethical behaviour, study finds

Toronto, October 6, 2009 –Just being around green products can make us behave more altruistically, a new study to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science has found.

But buying those same products can have the opposite effect. Researchers found that buying green can lead people into less altruistic behaviour, and even make them more likely to lie and steal than after buying conventional products. This is because engaging in good behaviours like buying green products can set up “moral credentials” in people’s minds that give license to selfish or questionable behaviour.

“This was not done to point the finger at consumers who buy green products," say Nina Mazar, a marketing professor, and Chen-Bo Zhong, a professor of organizational behaviour both at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and self-admitted green consumers. “Our study is part of an ongoing research on moral regulation and licensing that have shown that prior good behaviours ironically can license subsequent morally questionable behaviours. We wanted to see whether the act of purchasing green products, which is commonly seen as ethical, can have a similar licensing effect. Although we explore green products as the context, our message is about moral regulation: how satisfaction or content from doing a good act can lower our moral guard and license other unethical behaviours.

Mazar and Zhong conducted three experiments. The first found that people perceived green consumers to be more cooperative, altruistic and ethical than those who purchased conventional products. In the second and third experiment people were randomly assigned to a virtual store that carried either mainly green or conventional products. Experiment 2 showed that participants merely exposed to the products from the green store shared more money in a subsequent experimental game, but those who actually made purchases in that store shared less. The final experiment revealed that participants who bought items in the green store as opposed to the conventional store showed evidence of lying and stealing money in a subsequent lab game.

The complete study is available at: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/newthinking/greenproducts.pdf .

For the latest thinking on business, management and economics from the Rotman School of Management, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/NewThinking .

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking. Located in the world’s most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions. The School is currently raising $200 million to ensure Canada has the world-class business school it deserves. For more information, visit http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca.