Nudging People to Pay More for Products from Pro-Environmental Firms

Abstract

Previous research has shown a positive association between the communication of pro-environmental practices of a firm and consumers’ evaluation of their products. However, little is known about such association when the information provided does not have potentially positive implications for product quality. Our three experiments study models of persuasion in the context of refurbished electronics, which is known to be associated with negative product quality. We find that even when the information provided has potentially negative implications for product quality: When the message is consistent with initial attitudes, people with high environmental involvement generate significantly higher evaluations than people with low environmental involvement; When arguments containing factual, evidence-based information, people with high environmental involvement generate higher evaluations than people with low environmental involvement. We find that the predictions from the social psychology literature do not hold when the message is not consistent with people’s initial attitudes, and when the message is supported by personal opinions and quotations, leading to interesting insights about the context of pro-environmental communications. Our study provides important practical implications for firms: what to say, how to say it, and to whom, are critical when firms communicate their pro-environmental practices and nudge people to support those practices.