Consumer Wisdom and Sustainable Product Purchase Intentions: An Abstract

Abstract

To better understand what type of personality traits drive sustainable consumption this research seeks to utilize the construct of consumer wisdom. Because wise consumers have certain traits such as being open to alternatives, concern for the natural environment, and overall thoughtful consideration of purchase choices, they should be more likely to opt for sustainable products (Luchs et al., 2021). Furthermore, to get a more holistic understanding of what variables could influence wise consumers from making the sustainable choice, it is imperative that we include other personality traits that can influence this relationship. Previous research has shown that masculinity can decrease ethical consumption intentions and that green consumption can be seen as feminine, deterring masculine consumers from choosing ethical products (Brough et al., 2016). Also, research has shown that perceptions of contamination or disgust can decrease the adoption of sustainable products (Argo et al., 2006). Drawing from this research we will test whether wise consumers experience the same kind of interruptions that may influence purchasing intentions for sustainable products. One hundred adults from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (Mage = 41.56, SD = 12.5, 44% female) participated in this study for a small cash incentive. Participants first answered questions regarding their purchase intentions for sustainable and non-sustainable products before filling out questions about consumer wisdom, masculinity, disgust sensitivity, and basic demographics. Results indicate that consumers high in masculinity and low in consumer wisdom had lower purchase intentions for sustainable products than those low in wisdom and low in masculinity. For high values of consumer wisdom, low and high masculinity did not appear to have an impact on sustainable product purchase intentions. In contrast, consumers high in disgust, actually had higher purchase intentions for sustainable products than those with low disgust at low levels of consumer wisdom. At high levels of consumer wisdom we once again see this gap decrease with high and low disgust consumers having relatively similar purchase intentions. Several interesting applications can be derived from these research findings for product manufacturers, marketers, educators, and consumers. First, understanding which traits are associated with sustainable consumption can be used by companies that develop sustainable products. Incorporating cues into packaging labels or product design that match consumer values with product attributes can increase positive attitudes toward the product and ultimately purchasing behavior. Second, marketers can use advertising to prompt wise consumer traits to make them more salient at the time of purchase, this has been shown to increase sustainable and ethical purchasing (Verplanken & Holland, 2002).