Going green to be seen: Status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation.
2010/01/01 by Vladas Griskevicius, Joshua M. Tybur, Bram Van den Bergh · 2,131 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Altruism (biology) #Business #Cultural Differences and Values #Law #Marketing #Political science #Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Quality (philosophy) #Reputation #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology
paper · open access · doi:10.1037/a0017346
published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98(3), 392-404 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Abstract
Why do people purchase proenvironmental "green" products? We argue that buying such products can be construed as altruistic, since green products often cost more and are of lower quality than their conventional counterparts, but green goods benefit the environment for everyone. Because biologists have observed that altruism might function as a "costly signal" associated with status, we examined in 3 experiments how status motives influenced desire for green products. Activating status motives led people to choose green products over more luxurious nongreen products. Supporting the notion that altruism signals one's willingness and ability to incur costs for others' benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public (but not private) and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products. Findings suggest that status competition can be used to promote proenvironmental behavior.
Cited by
- Psychological foundations of ethical consumerism: Influential role of quality and stigma
- How to SHIFT Consumer Behaviors to be More Sustainable: A Literature Review and Guiding Framework
- “I Eat Organic for My Benefit and Yours”: Egoistic and Altruistic Considerations for Purchasing Organic Food and Their Implications for Advertising Strategists
- Assimilating and Differentiating: The Curvilinear Effect of Social Class on Green Consumption
- The Impact of Green Energy Production on Healthiness Perceptions and Preferences
- All that glitters is not green: Creating trustworthy ecofriendly services at green hotels
- Finding the Right Shade of Green: The Effect of Advertising Appeal Type on Environmentally Friendly Consumption
- The taste for green: The possibilities and dynamics of status differentiation through “green” consumption
- The impact of socioeconomic status on preferences for sustainable luxury brands
- Social game theory: Preferences, perceptions, and choices
- Conviction Narrative Theory: A theory of choice under radical uncertainty
- Temporal myopia in sustainable behavior under uncertainty
- Marketing scholarship and environmentally-sustainable retailing: a two-stage framework for greener consumption and production
- Scaling Up Change: A Critical Review and Practical Guide to Harnessing Social Norms for Climate Action
- Obstacles and opportunities for sustainable consumption: A comprehensive conceptual model, literature review, and research agenda
- How and Why the Collaborative Consumption of Food Leads to Overpurchasing, Overconsumption, and Waste
- A Review and Taxonomy of Choice Architecture Techniques
- The watching eyes phenomenon: The role of a sense of being seen and public self‐awareness
- An integrative theory of resource discrepancies
- Corporate Social Responsibility Theories in the Context of Global Transformational Events: A Scoping Review
- An investigation of unsustainable luxury: How guilt drives negative word-of-mouth
- Gender Bending and Gender Conformity: The Social Consequences of Engaging in Feminine and Masculine Pro-Environmental Behaviors
- Relationships between daily affect and pro‐environmental behavior at work: The moderating role of pro‐environmental attitude
- Behavioural factors affecting the adoption of sustainable farming practices: a policy-oriented review
- How does public recognition affect price sensitivity to green products? The role of self‐construal and temporal distance
- Political Consumerism in Context: An Experiment on Status and Information in Ethical Consumption Decisions
- To see or not to see: The effect of observability of the recycled content on consumer adoption of products made from recycled materials
- Seeing the world through GREEN‐tinted glasses: Green consumption values and responses to environmentally friendly products
- When consumers penalize not so green products
- Sustainable Decisions Signal Sustainable Relationships: How Purchasing Decisions Affect Perceptions and Romantic Attraction
- Toward a Unified Science of Hierarchy: Dominance and Prestige are Two Fundamental Pathways to Human Social Rank
- The effects of environmental and luxury beliefs on intention to patronize green hotels: the moderating effect of destination image
- Mixed signals of status: luxury consumption shapes competence and warmth impressions through different routes
- The Evolutionary Bases for Sustainable Behavior: Implications for Marketing, Policy, and Social Entrepreneurship
- Uncertainty, rationality and cooperation in the context of climate change
- Green nudges: Do they work? Are they ethical?
- Educational Differences in Cycling: Evidence from German Cities
- The unequal cycling boom in Germany
- Ontogeny and Social Dominance: A Developmental View of Human Power Patterns
- Conspicuous conservation: The Prius halo and willingness to pay for environmental bona fides
- Conspicuous conservation [wikipedia]
- Understanding the human dimensions of a sustainable energy transition. [europepmc]
- Are Luxury Brand Labels and "Green" Labels Costly Signals of Social Status? An Extended Replication. [europepmc]
- Protecting the Environment for Self-interested Reasons: Altruism Is Not the Only Pathway to Sustainability. [europepmc]
- When Do Morally Motivated Innovators Elicit Inspiration Instead of Irritation? [europepmc]
- Social Observation Increases Functional Segregation between MPFC Subregions Predicting Prosocial Consumer Decisions. [europepmc]
- Single-dose testosterone administration increases men's preference for status goods. [europepmc]
- Social science perspectives on drivers of and responses to global climate change. [europepmc]
- Influence of Awe on Green Consumption: The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership. [europepmc]
- Stability or Plasticity? - A Hierarchical Allostatic Regulation Model of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Function for Social Valuation. [europepmc]
- Environmentally Sustainable Food Consumption: A Review and Research Agenda From a Goal-Directed Perspective. [europepmc]
- Social Desirability in Environmental Psychology Research: Three Meta-Analyses. [europepmc]
- Social Exclusion and Green Consumption: A Costly Signaling Approach. [europepmc]
- How to Solve the Social Norm Conflict Dilemma of Green Consumption: The Moderating Effect of Self-Affirmation. [europepmc]
- How Does Employee Green Behavior Impact Employee Well-Being? An Empirical Analysis. [europepmc]
- Message Framing Effects on Individuals' Social Distancing and Helping Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic. [europepmc]
- Environmental awareness and guests' intention to visit green hotels: The mediation role of consumption values. [europepmc]
- Altruism, Environmental Concerns, and Pro-environmental Behaviors of Urban Residents: A Case Study in a Typical Chinese City. [europepmc]
- Ethical dilemmas are really important to potential adopters of autonomous vehicles. [europepmc]
- What POST-COVID-19 lifestyles may look like? Identifying scenarios and their implications for sustainability. [europepmc]
- Conceptualizing the Role of Target-Specific Environmental Transformational Leadership between Corporate Social Responsibility and Pro-Environmental Behaviors of Hospital Employees. [europepmc]
- The Impact of Pro-environmental Awareness Components on Green Consumption Behavior: The Moderation Effect of Consumer Perceived Cost, Policy Incentives, and Face Culture. [europepmc]
- Algae as Food in Europe: An Overview of Species Diversity and Their Application. [europepmc]
- Condition-dependent trade-offs maintain honest signalling. [europepmc]
- The Role of Social Norms and Personal Costs on Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Mediating Role of Personal Norms. [europepmc]
- Measuring the Evolutionarily Important Goals of Situations : Situational Affordances for Adaptive Problems. [europepmc]
Related