Credit: © ISTOCKPHOTO / JANINE LAMONTAGNE

Psych. Sci. (in the press)

Purchasing green products can make people behave less altruistically, suggests new research.

Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto conducted three experiments to gauge how people's interaction with green products affected their other social interactions. The first experiment, involving 59 students, showed that participants rated those who buy green products as being more cooperative, altruistic and ethical than those who purchase conventional products. In the second experiment, each of 156 students was randomly assigned to shop at either a conventional or 'green' online store, in which they were either exposed to items or invited to purchase items. The same students then participated in a game that involved sharing money with an unidentified person in a separate room. While those exposed to the green products shared more money than those exposed to the conventional products, participants who had bought green products shared less money. In a final experiment, which set 90 students the task of playing a computer game, purchasers of green products were the most likely to lie and steal to earn extra money.

The authors suggest that buying green products may act as a 'moral offset', prompting people to be more lax with other ethical norms.