van der Wal, A.J., Van Horen, F. and Grinstein, A. (2016). The Paradox of 'Green to be Seen': Green High-Status Shoppers Excessively Use (Branded) Shopping Bags International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1):216--219.
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Affiliated author
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Publication year2016
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JournalInternational Journal of Research in Marketing
This research conceptually replicates, in a real-world setting, prior lab findings showing that status motives make people publicly display sustainable behavior. The results show that shoppers of a high-status sustainable grocery chain display sustainable shopping more by using branded shopping bags than shoppers of a lower-status chain. Extending previous findings, we demonstrate the non-sustainable costs of acting sustainably for status reasons: high-status 'green' shoppers are more likely to buy new bags rather than bring their own.