Public debates make consumption more sustainable
Published: Tuesday, Oct 1st 2024, 12:30
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Movements such as Fridays For Future influence the purchasing behavior of consumers. As researchers from the University of Zurich have shown in a new study, a public discussion prior to a purchase leads to more sustainable consumption decisions.
This is independent of the social norms and values of buyers, according to a press release issued by the University of Zurich (UZH) on Tuesday.
Such public discussions are supported, for example, by movements such as Fridays for Future or the World Economic Forum (WEF), the researchers wrote in the study, which was published in the journal "American Economic Review".
To find out whether such campaigns are effective, the researchers conducted an experiment with 2,500 participants in China and Switzerland. As sellers and buyers, they had the choice between a product that was cheaper to produce but harmed third parties and a more responsible product with higher production costs that did not harm third parties.
"Considerable impact"
If a discourse about this took place at the beginning of the experiment, there was an increase in trading with fair products. If the test subjects had the opportunity to completely avoid the discourse, however, there was no increase in socially responsible market behavior, as the UZH explained in the press release.
"Our results suggest that campaigns that encourage discussion about appropriate market behavior can have a significant impact," the researchers wrote in the study.
In laboratory situations, however, it is only possible to capture the diversity of public debates and their effects to a limited extent, the researchers conceded.
©Keystone/SDA
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