Can Climate Change Awaken Ecological Consciousness? A Neuroethical Approach to Green Consumption

Meiling Yin, Hanna Choi and Eun-Ju Lee ()
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Meiling Yin: Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 03063, Korea
Hanna Choi: Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 03063, Korea
Eun-Ju Lee: Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 03063, Korea

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: Climate change is a major threat to humanity and endangers our way of life. If a critical mass of consumers can consider the consequences of the daily consumption choices they make, we could hope for a better future. From a neuroethical viewpoint, we examined how a consumer’s ecological consciousness can be awakened, leading to eco-friendly consumption. This study used the neuroscientific method of event-related potentials (ERP) to explore the neural mechanisms underlying climate change. Both frontal N300 and posterior P300 ERP components occur under climate change conditions which is a neural representation of ecological consciousness. Consumers who exhibited simultaneous frontal N300 and posterior P300 activation were more likely than those who did not to make eco-friendly product choices during the consumption tasks. Using these neurobehavioral findings, marketers can promote eco-friendly consumption based on ecological consciousness.

Keywords: climate change; ecological consciousness; eco-friendly consumption; ERP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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