Understanding consumers’ moral consciousness

Abstract

AbstractThe issue driving this paper is ‘Why don’t people, in their consumer role, have a well developed moral conscience?’ To address this compelling question, the paper explores the moral consciousness of consumption behaviour (or lack thereof). The first part of the paper provides brief overviews of: (1) moral consciousness applied to consumption, (2) the essence of morality and ethics, (3) four facets of the field of ethics, (4) two moral development models, and (5) the affective domain of learning. The intent is to prepare the reader for a discussion of an approach to understanding the moral consciousness of consumption that integrates particular concepts drawn from the theory of ethics and morality with the moral development models and the affective domain of learning.