Being Green Can Make You Mean, Claims Psychologists’ Study
Mar 22nd, 2010 • Posted in: NewsThe theory: People who feel they have been more ethical in one area are more likely to behave badly in other realms of human activity
TORONTO
A new study by a pair of Canadian professors contends that people who buy “green” products are less altruistic in other areas of their lives and are more likely to cheat and steal.
“Purchasing green products may produce the counterintuitive effect of licensing asocial and unethical behaviors by establishing moral credentials,” the study found, according to a summary by the CBC. “Thus, green products do not necessarily make us better people.”
According to the researchers, psychologists from the University of Toronto, the good behavior involving green products allows consumers to rationalize bad behavior in other areas, reports the Toronto Sun.
The researchers found that those in the study who bought green products appeared less willing to share a certain amount of money with others compared to people who bought conventional products, reports the Guardian. Green consumers also were found to be more likely to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then lying about it.
The underlying malady, claims the study, is that the “halo of green consumerism” affects their behavior because “virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviors,” a practice sometimes called “moral balancing” or “compensatory ethics.”
The Guardian interviewed Dieter Frey, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, who said the findings fit the pattern of human behavior. “At the moment in which you have proven your credentials in a particular area, you tend to allow yourself to stray elsewhere,” he said.
The Economist was quick to follow up with an opinion piece arguing that price-oriented environmental policies will be more effective “because they rely on price signals rather than altruism to generate reductions in the environmental impact of consumer purchases. And because they don’t rely on altruism, consumers may be less likely to compensate for their greenness by being more ethically indulgent elsewhere.”
Sources: Economist, Mar. 17 — CBC, Mar. 16 — Toronto Sun, Mar. 16 — Guardian, Mar. 15.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Jan. 11 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 21, 2009 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 2, 2009 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 4, 2007 — Related Newsline story, July 29, 2002.
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