Nudging consumers to act by their ethical beliefs...

I was surprised to see my friend Tina, who I know is really concerned about choosing environment-friendly products, choosing this not-so-much green-friendly car. However, I also notice that many of her friends have the same car model, and that made me think that in many situations consumers fail to follow their inner ethical consumption values because they end up following the social influence of the crowd (consciously or unconsciously). There is some research that backs up this, showing that many consumers fail to make consistent ethical consumption decisions when there is a need to conform with their social in-group.

In many situations consumers fail to follow their inner ethical consumption values because they end up following the social influence of the crowd

With Diego Costa, Marcia Herter and Mario Boto Ferreira, we decide to investigate how we could help the planet by nudging messages that could help consumers to stick with their inner - and more ethical - preferences.

In our research, we used multiple experiments to show that when consumers focus on concrete aspects of the product or service (for example, the product attributes), they will end up focusing on in-group cues and going with the crowd, eventually buying a high-performance car if their friends have it.

However, when consumers use an abstract mindset - in which they focus on seeing the big picture, they will act more consistently with their inner ethical goals, rather than focusing on the influence of others. In a nutshell, abstract mindsets help consumers to focus on their own consistent ethical aspirations, rather than a momentary group influence.

When consumers use an abstract mindset they will act more consistently with their inner ethical goals rather than focusing on the influence of others.

This research shows that companies who are marketing eco-friendly products or services should elicit an abstract mindset through their communication to help consumers to focus on their inner values. For example, by simply asking "why is it important to buy a green car?"in their ad they can appeal to customers that have inner green values and who could otherwise potentially follow the crowd.

To see the full research, please take a look on

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-ethics-quarterly/article/reducing-ingroup-bias-in-ethical-consumption-the-role-of-construal-levels-and-social-goodwill/93C281F7E9ACC6311D50B8678F0A019B

I would love to hear your thoughts about this research and other behavioral science topics. Please, leave your comments below and do not hesitate to share this article with your network.

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Adilson Borges is the Chief Learning Officer at Carrefour and the Immediate Past President of the Academy of Marketing Science. Adilson is also the IRC Professor of Marketing at Neoma BS. Before that, he held various positions and worked as a consultant for different organizations in Brazil, Europe and USA. He's is passionate about marketing, learning, decision making and behavioral science. Adilson enjoys sharing his personal thoughts here on LinkedIn. All statements and opinions presented in his articles or posts only reflect his personal opinion.

Follow Adilson on Twitter: @aborges_mkt

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