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Product information may incite consumers to buy recklessly

3 Nov 2023
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As a responsible consumer, you try to save energy and water, sort waste, and buy ecological products. One day, you¡¯re browsing online stores and find a hoodie labeled eco-friendly. Aiming to be sustainable, you decide to buy the hoodie just because of its eco-label and you don¡¯t research the product¡¯s background. Just like that, you¡¯ve bought a seemingly sustainable product impulsively.

¡°Recent studies have shown that green buying is not only something that is conscious and requires considerable cognitive efforts. It may also be habitual and impulsive. People may choose a responsibly manufactured tea as an impulse buy and realize back home that they already have five or six similar tea packages in the cupboard,¡± says Svetlana Obukhovich, junior researcher at LUT Business School.

notes that especially sustainable consumption often causes conflicting reactions in people.

"For example, many of us think that it¡¯s a good thing to buy sustainable products but at the same time feel they are more expensive or have a worse selection than so-called normal products. Or we may think that recycling makes us feel better but also perceive recycling as a difficult or annoying chore¡±, says Sipil?.

Read more about the psychological mechanisms of green buying: