Seeking or ignoring ethical certifications in consumer choice

Dianna R. Amasino, Suzanne Oosterwijk, Nikki Sullivan and Joël van der Weele

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Consumers often encounter, and claim to care about, ethical information concerning the products they purchase. Across three studies, we investigate how the accessibility of this information impacts choice. When consumers must seek out product attribute information, the impact of ethical certifications (Fairtrade and Organic) is diminished relative to other attributes. Both positive and negative framing of certifications increase their impact on choice relative to neutral frames, with negative frames having the strongest effect. However, in contrast to theories of information demand that would predict more willful ignorance of negatively framed content, negative framing has the same impact regardless of information accessibility. Together, our findings suggest that having to seek ethical certification information leads to a small reduction in the use of certifications to guide choice, but that affective framing has a larger impact on the weight placed on certifications in consumer choices regardless of the accessibility of information.

Keywords: consumer-choice; information-avoidance; information-seeking; willful ignorance; sustainability; certifications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2025-03-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt
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Published in Ecological Economics, 31, March, 2025, 229. ISSN: 0921-8009

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