Going green to be seen: Status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation.

Abstract

Why do people purchase proenvironmental "green" products? We argue that buying such products can be construed as altruistic, since green products often cost more and are of lower quality than their conventional counterparts, but green goods benefit the environment for everyone. Because biologists have observed that altruism might function as a "costly signal" associated with status, we examined in 3 experiments how status motives influenced desire for green products. Activating status motives led people to choose green products over more luxurious nongreen products. Supporting the notion that altruism signals one's willingness and ability to incur costs for others' benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public (but not private) and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products. Findings suggest that status competition can be used to promote proenvironmental behavior.

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“…Li, Kirkman, and Porter (2014) also explained altruistic behavior as a list of voluntary actions benefiting other people including self-sacrifice. This definition indicates that altruistic behavior involve acts that are not required by central authorities or formal sanctions but are done to increase other people's fitness (Hamilton, 1972) or gain higher social status and personal benefit later (Griskevicius et al, 2010). Buss (2008) explains that the problem of altruism becomes even more complicated by the findings that altruistic behaviors are neither new nor unusual in human history.…”

“…Even though Griskevicius, Tybur, and Van den Bergh (2010) investigated the link between reputation and altruistic behavior, a solid conclusion could not be made because of a few limitations, such as looking at behavior intentions instead of behavior itself. In addition, altruism will be studied from two different perspectives, Social Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology, so that a wide, but still detailed, understanding can be reached.…”

“…Previous research, Griskevicius et al (2010), studied a similar topic with the variables of altruism and reputation, in which the authors used vignettes to gather related data. Even before that particular research, altruism was studied and explained in various perspectives such as Social and Evolutionary Psychology.…”

Understanding the Human Factor of the Energy Transition: Mechanisms Underlying Energy-Relevant Decisions and Behaviors

“…For example, people are more likely to engage in sustainable energy behaviors when they expect to derive pleasure from such behavior (Smith et al, 1994;Pelletier et al, 1998;Carrus et al, 2008;Gatersleben and Steg, 2012), and when they expect that others would approve of it , and when receive information on the sustainable energy behaviours of others . They may also engage in sustainable energy behavior because they expect that the particular behavior enhances their status, particularly when the behavior is somewhat costly, as in this case the behavior signals to others that they have sufficient resources to make altruistic sacrifices (Griskevicius et al, 2010). Similarly, the likelihood of adoption of sustainable innovations such as an electric car and renewable energy systems appeared to be higher when consumers evaluated their symbolic aspects, that is, the extent to which these innovations signal something positive about the owner or user to others and themselves, more favorably (Noppers et al, 2014).…”

“…This imitative effect will be stronger the more knowledge about the role models' behavior and the more support for the imitative behavior stems from the individual's social network (Tsakas, 2012). Thus, private households might buy energy-efficient appliances with the hope of hereby attaining social status and appreciation (Bird and Smith, 2005;Griskevicius et al, 2010).…”