Of course, it presumes that one thinks there's any actual good to be done in buying certain kinds of products . . .
On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 12:42 PM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
> [WS:] It could well be that this is a spurious connection. People who can
> afford to be "green consumers" tend to be more of upper middle class or
> "yuppie" background than people who buy conventional products (which are
> far
> less expensive.) So what the authors attribute to be a "going green" effect
> is in fact an effect of upper class arrogance.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 9:12 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > Guardian - March 15, 2010
> > <
> >
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/15/green-consumers-more-likely-steal
> > >
> >
> > How going green may make you mean
> > Ethical consumers less likely to be kind and more likely to steal, study
> > finds
> >
> > Kate Connolly in Berlin
> >
> > When Al Gore was caught running up huge energy bills at home at the same
> > time as lecturing on the need to save electricity, it turns out that he
> was
> > only reverting to "green" type.
> >
> > According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by
> > saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for
> example,
> > it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable
> behaviour",
> > otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics".
> >
> > Do Green Products Make Us Better People is published in the latest
> edition
> > of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists
> > Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call
> the
> > "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others, and
> more
> > likely to cheat and steal. "Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial
> and
> > unethical behaviours," they write.
> >
> > The pair found that those in their study who bought green products
> appeared
> > less willing to share with others a set amount of money than those who
> > bought conventional products. When the green consumers were given the
> chance
> > to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then given the
> > opportunity to lie about it – in other words, steal – they did, while the
> > conventional consumers did not. Later, in an honour system in which
> > participants were asked to take money from an envelope to pay themselves
> > their spoils, the greens were six times more likely to steal than the
> > conventionals.
> >
> > Mazar and Zhong said their study showed that just as exposure to pictures
> > of exclusive restaurants can improve table manners but may not lead to an
> > overall improvement in behaviour, "green products do not necessarily make
> > for better people". They added that one motivation for carrying out the
> > study was that, despite the "stream of research focusing on identifying
> the
> > 'green consumer'", there was a lack of understanding into "how green
> > consumption fits into people's global sense of responsibility and
> morality
> > and [how it] affects behaviours outside the consumption domain".
> >
> > The pair said their findings surprised them, having thought that just as
> > "exposure to the Apple logo increased creativity", according to a recent
> > study, "given that green products are manifestations of high ethical
> > standards and humanitarian considerations, mere exposure" to them would
> > "activate norms of social responsibility and ethical conduct".
> >
> > Dieter Frey, a social psychologist at the University of Munich, said the
> > findings fitted patterns of human behaviour. "At the moment in which you
> > have proven your credentials in a particular area, you tend to allow
> > yourself to stray elsewhere," he said.
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> >
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