Doing Good Better: Impure Altruism in Green Apparel Advertising

So Young Song,Youn-Kyung Kim

doi:10.3390/su11205762

So Young Song, Youn-Kyung Kim

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205762

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Abstract

In this study, we identify impure altruism as a duality of altruistic and egoistic warmth. We examine how these feelings motivate consumers to buy green apparel in response to advertisements. We test the effectiveness of the message orientation and its interactivity with a beneficiary and propose modeling impure altruism as the reason why consumers purchase green apparel. The study uses a quasi-experiment to estimate a comparison effect among advertising stimuli. We conduct an online survey among US consumers that garnered 586 responses for the main data analysis. The results indicate that egocentric appeals increase perceived uniqueness and that human beneficiary appeals lead to higher communal harmony. The findings show that communal harmony and global wellbeing prompt altruistic warmth and that uniqueness and product quality encourage egoistic warmth. Notably, altruistic warmth contributes to egoistic warmth, which indicates the existence of impurely altruistic consumers. Both altruistic and egoistic warmth lead to the intention of purchasing green apparel. We recommend “feel-good” marketing strategies to publicize the benefits of a sustainable lifestyle. The study contributes to the theoretical development of sustainability and can serve as an extension of a discrete model of altruism and egoism on consumers’ sustainable behavior.

Highlights

The literature in social psychology and advertising suggests that consumers’ sustainable purchases can be shaped by two emotional states: altruism and egoism [1,2]
In submodel (B), we investigated the relation between benefit perceptions, emotional warmth and purchase intentions for green apparel products
The results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that our measurement model had a good fit [48]: χ2 (608) = 2411.209, p < 0.001; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.934; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.927; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.071; and SRMR = 0.032

Summary

Introduction

The literature in social psychology and advertising suggests that consumers’ sustainable purchases can be shaped by two emotional states: altruism and egoism [1,2]. The literature defines altruism as “a desire to benefit others’ welfare” [3], there is a long-standing debate as to whether altruistic actions are driven purely by empathic concern for others or by egoistic self-interests. Egoism derives from self-interest and includes egoistic feelings of warmth such as pride and self-respect [5]. This egoistic feeling of warmth is called a “warm-glow” [6]. Impure altruism comes from mixed motivations of a philanthropic value in altruistic acts and self-centered benefits of the emotional incentive obtained from social reputation and prestige [6]. The terms “pure altruism” and “altruism” are interchangeable

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