Belief in a Just World: Consumer Intentions and Behaviors Toward Ethical Products
Abstract
Although consumers report positive attitudes toward ethical goods, their intentions and behaviors often do not follow suit. Just-world theory highlights the conditions under which consumers are most likely to prefer fair-trade products. This theory proposes that people are motivated to construe the world as a just place where people get what they deserve. In the current research, when people are confronted with high levels of injustice (communicated need is high) and avenues for justice restoration seem uncertain or unavailable, assisting others by supporting fair trade decreases. However, highlighting how injustice can be redressed through purchases enhances fair-trade support under conditions of high need. The effects are moderated by justice sensitivity factors, such as just-world beliefs and whether the product type (indulgence vs. necessity) makes the injustice of consumer privilege salient. The results suggest that communicating high need when requesting consumer prosocial actions can sometimes backfire. Marketers employing high need appeals should heighten perceptions of justice restoration potential and activate fairness-related thoughts through product positioning to encourage fair-trade purchases.
... This research paper, therefore, additionally proposes and interrogates this posit that when consumers exhibiting this orientation in the global north are exposed to others via visiting, living, following and engaging with developing countries they will be more likely to choose products with ethical attributes such as fairtrade over alternatives with self-benefit features. Our current research is in further response to the need for a holistic understanding of non-pecuniary motivations for ethical consumption and prosocial behaviour (Becchetti and Rosati, 2007;House et al., 2020;White et al., 2012;Zollo, 2020) by using a national survey platform to establish a relationship between international exposure and consumer social preference for fairtrade products. Therefore, making this study noteworthy to contribute to the extant literature on social preference, consumer cosmopolitan orientation and fairtrade. ...
... This has become essential due to the compression of global distances that exposes consumers to emerging relevant others (expanded reference group). Indeed, White et al. (2012) recount a myriad of ethical decisions that border on social equity considerations for other people such as donating to charities and fairtrade among others. Increasing consumer interest in sustainable products and prosocial behaviour (Carrington et al., 2010;Chekima et al., 2017;Cotte and Trudel, 2009;Herzenstein et al., 2020;UNEP, 2013) has spurred a general optimism that ethical and socially responsible consumption can contribute positively to the attainment of sustainable development globally. ...
... The study contributes to contemporary research that suggests that highlighting ethical attributes of products including fairtrade does not consistently attract favourable purchase intention and behaviour (Carrington et al., 2010;Chekima et al., 2017;Yamoah, 2019;Yamoah and Acquaye, 2019). Indeed, ethical consumer behaviour can be shaped singly or jointly by a concern for justice for others (White et al., 2012), product and market factors (Bezawada and Pauwels, 2013;Van Doorn and Verhoef, 2015), social group influence (Anik and Norton, 2020), habit development (Khan et al., 2020;Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005), selfidentity and degree of tangibility (Barros et al., 2020), among other factors. The current research complements this strand of literature by highlighting that international exposure positively influences consumer responses to fairtrade products. ...
Social preference theory highlights an alternative explanation for consumption choices that are not consistent with rational economic decision making. In the current research, social preference theorizing is advanced by highlighting consumers’ exposure to developing countries (international exposure) as a factor that increases disposition to support fairtrade. The study shows that internationally exposed consumers through direct and indirect means demonstrate social concern by engaging in fairtrade food purchasing behaviour. Managers employing social preference appeals could prioritise internationally exposed consumers and heighten perceptions of equality restoration for a global reference group. The results imply that fairtrade marketers and public policymakers should highlight the benefits of fairtrade products to promote global equity.
... An appeal may be seen as a situation where an injustice has taken place (e.g., a natural disaster), while also providing a way to atone for the injustice (e.g., help those in need). When such an opportunity to resolve beliefthreat is present, helping behaviors are likely to increase (Lerner & Simmons, 1966;White et al., 2012). Individuals' beliefs impact the interpretation of charitable appeals in various ways. ...
... Individuals' beliefs impact the interpretation of charitable appeals in various ways. For instance, charitable support has been associated with individual differences in belief in karma (Chen et al., 2022;Kulow & Kramer, 2016), dialectical thought (DeMotta, 2021), and motivation for justice (White et al., 2012). Prior research has also indicated that higher just-world beliefs are tied with helping intentions (Igou et al., 2021) and altruistic behavior (Bègue, 2014). ...
... To confront this threat, individuals who believe in a just world are known to engage in several threat reduction strategies, such as through rationalization or helping behaviors (Lerner, 1980). For example, when high just-world belief consumers had the opportunity to restore justice via the purchase of ethical products, their purchase intentions increased (White et al., 2012). Chapman et al. (2022 note that these individuals with a high just-world belief, in fact, are more likely to hold victims accountable and may be more likely to withhold support. ...
This paper investigates the influence of language style (formal vs. colloquial) on the effectiveness of charitable appeals. Although prior research has found persuasive effects associated with colloquial language style, we propose that the influence of language style is context dependent. Charitable appeals generally address relatively serious topics. Since formal language style is more context congruent in communicating this seriousness, it should be more effective in expressing the emotional arousal or the effort of the communicator, which we expected to result in greater charitable support. Across four studies, we provide important insights on how charitable organizations can better align language style to increase donor support. We find that formal language style (vs. colloquial) results in greater charitable support. We also find evidence for the underlying role of perceptions of emotional arousal, as in indication of effort, in this relationship. Lastly, we find support for a moderator related to one's prior beliefs. Since individuals with high just‐world beliefs are motivated to vary their prosocial behaviors, we find a moderating effect of just‐world beliefs, but only when the belief is high, that is, when individuals seek accountability.
... In this paper, we articulate a link between SDO and fair-trade products. As mentioned earlier, fair-trade products aim to promote equality (De Pelsmacker & Janssens, 2007;White, MacDonnell, & Ellard, 2012). In fact, fair-trade seeks equality in conventional trade as traditional trade is associated with injustice and therefore leads to discrimination against the poorest and weakest producers (City, 2022). ...
... Therefore, political ideology can manifest in consumers' behaviors. In this vein, the present research bridges the literature between political ideology and fair-trade products, extending findings from previous research (De Pelsmacker & Janssens, 2007;Popa Sârghie & Pracejus, 2021;Usslepp et al., 2021;White et al., 2012). Overall, we contribute to the literature in several ways as follows. ...
Purchasing fair-trade products can contribute to poverty eradication and social equality by promoting sustainable production. However, some consumers resist purchasing fair-trade products. This research replicates previous research findings that political ideology affects consumers’ preference for fair-trade products (Usslepp, et al., 2021), but we provide a novel psychological mechanism and identify two boundary conditions. Specifically, across five studies, we showed that conservative (vs. liberal) consumers are less likely to purchase fair-trade products (Studies 1a & 1b), and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) can explain the relationship (Study 2). We also ruled out other potential mechanisms, including emotional, motivational, and psychological factors. Further, we showed that when fair-trade product consumption is associated with feeling superior to others, conservative consumers express higher preferences for fair-trade products. Our findings have implications for marketers and policymakers in promoting fair-trade products, bridging the attitude-behavior gap, and building an equitable society.
... Purchase intentions Adapted from White, MacDonnell, and Ellard (2012;7 points; Strongly disagree / Strongly agree) From the authors (7 points; To a poor extent / To a great extent) Studies Getting what I want requires pleasing those people above me. If important people were to decide they didn't like me, I probably wouldn't make many friends.Whether or not I get into a car accident depends mostly on the other driver.In order to have my plans work, I make sure that they fit in with the desires of people who have power over me. ...
Given how widespread business-related conspiracy theories have become, this research examines how associating a brand with a conspiracy theory shapes the consumer’s relationship with that brand. Our three studies show that when consumers believe a brand is involved in a conspiracy, this belief leads them to perceive the brand as having a Machiavellian personality, which decreases their trust and purchase intentions. Furthermore, we show that when people have an external locus of control and believe their life is influenced by Powerful Others, their belief in a brand conspiracy leads them to exhibit lower purchase intentions toward that brand. Importantly, this decrease in purchase intentions among people with an external locus of control was not observed in the control condition, indicating that the moderating effect of Powerful Others occurs only when consumers believe in a conspiracy. Our findings add to the emerging marketing literature on dark brand personality.
... The market value of ethically labeled foods has increased lately, from USD 794 billion in 2015 to USD 900 billion in 2021 [72]. Fair trade, defined as "a social movement that attempts to set fair pricing for products, decrease poverty, and assist producers," has also received much attention [73]. The global market for fair trade products has expanded from USD 2.5 billion in 2007 to USD 5.5 billion in 2015 and USD 9.8 billion in 2018 [72,74]. ...
Both academics and businesspeople are interested in how to make social enterprises sustainable. The focus of this research is on the different kinds of stakeholders within a group that make it easier for competing logics to coexist in social enterprises. Based on intra-stakeholder heterogeneity and competing institutional logics, we identify key sub-categories among market stakeholders such as investors, customers, and employees. We tested our hypotheses using survey data collected from 190 social enterprises in Korea. Our research shows that the hybridity of competing logics is better when there are more ethical investors in the investor stakeholder group and cross-sector employees in the employee stakeholder group. However, impure altruistic buyers do not have much of an impact on the hybridity of competing logics among consumer stakeholder groups. Our study’s analysis of intra-stakeholder heterogeneity provides theoretical insight into the hybridity of institutional logics in social entrepreneurship. This study also makes the practical suggestion that in order to achieve hybridity, managers of social enterprises should put in a lot of time and effort to understand the different institutional logics of within-group stakeholders.
... These narratives could move consumers beyond recognizing the utilitarian needs the products serve (for example, hemp zipper pouches can be used to hold cash or make-up) and activate potential hedonic needs (feeling good about making purchases that make a difference in the women's lives). To tackle the marketing dimensions of the handicraft project, students read literature on ethical consumerism (Burke, Eckert, & Davis 2014) and just world theory (White, MacDonnell, & Ellard 2012) to understand market segmentation and to identify the appropriate target markets for the women's handcrafted items. ...
... To measure willingness to buy we used the scale of White, MacDonnell, and Ellard (2012). We averaged the responses into a reliable scale. ...
... Additionally, while the literature often combines business ethics and CSR as interchangeable concepts, after Brunk's (2010a, b) contributions, Weller (2020) elaborates on the different contextual meanings of the two concepts. Yet, despite the arguments on conceptualization, all perspectives assume a strong relation between brand ethicality and CSR (White et al. 2012). What is more, ethics is a broad concept, within which CSR is only a limited and narrow subject. ...
Owing to a significant decline in consumer trust, the power of arousing affective commitment to brands through perceived brand ethicality and corporate social responsibility (CSR) has now become an advantageous marketing strategy; however, there is little known whether cynics and materialists show similar responses toward such marketing efforts. This study analyzes the mediating effect of consumers’ perceived ethicality in the relationship between consumer cynicism/material values and affective commitment by comparing the perception of CSR efforts as weak or strong in the context of cosmetics brands among young women. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was utilized to test the data related to 271 participants obtained by purposive, convenient, and snowball sampling methods. The results reveal that cynicism has a serious negative effect on perceived ethicality that mediates affective commitment, whereas, materialism has a relatively stronger positive impact on perceived ethicality that triggers intensive affective commitment. In addition, perceiving CSR action as weak or strong is found not to change the established affective commitment among cynics, while leading materialists to develop strong emotional bonds through brand ethicality perceived exaggeratedly. Furthermore, cynics are found predisposed to making brand-related judgments on a rational basis, while materialists mostly address such issues on an emotional basis.
... More specifically, past research on CPBE demonstrates its role in producing favorable outcomes for a brand, including brand affect (Sierra et al., 2017;Singh et al., 2012); perceived quality (Markovic et al., 2018;Sierra et al., 2017); brand trust (Singh et al., 2012); brand equity (Sierra et al., 2017) and brand loyalty (Markovic et al., 2018;Singh et al., 2012) among others. Some studies have also examined the benefits of positioning the brands using ethical attributes to garner favorable outcomes (White et al., 2012). Nevertheless, most of the benefits of CPBE have been examined and are well established in the brand context; we posit that CPBE can also generate similar or additional benefits in the brand community landscape. ...
In recent times, ethical consumerism has motivated firms to behave ethically to garner various benefits for their brands. More specifically, firms have become more conscious of consumers' perceptions of brand ethicality. Thus, recent research on this topic attempts to explore the factors that can lead to the formation of perceptions of brand ethicality and its favorable outcomes for the brand. This research contributes to the existing literature on brand ethicality by examining the role of perceived brand marketing communications in engendering perceptions of brand ethicality among consumers. Further, this research explores online brand community engagement as the outcome of perceived brand ethicality. The study's results based on the analysis of 397 responses exhibit that various elements of brand communications tend to generate favorable perceptions of brand ethicality. Such perceptions of the brand ethicality further induce an inclination towards engaging with online communities of such brands. The study offers specific implications for academicians and practitioners.
... As many scandals have abated consumers' trust, it would be interesting to better understand the drivers of trust, credibility, trustworthiness and expertise as they relate to sustainability issues, and identify the most effective marketing tools that luxury brands can use to demonstrate a genuine commitment to sustainability and avoid a perception of greenwashing (Delmas and Burbano 2011). This is important because research suggests that when consumers are confused or do not have enough information to make an ethical decision, they simply give up and do not change their purchasing behaviors (Gleim et al. 2013;White et al. 2012). ...
Does describing torture by America's agents as a longstanding practice—part of the status quo—increase people's acceptance of the practice? A representative sample of U.S. adults, randomly assigned to conditions in which these practices were described as new or as having been used for more than 40 years, read about the use of torture in questioning of detainees. Torture described as a longstanding practice had more support and was seen as more effective and justifiable than the same torture described as new. Characterization of practices as longstanding—even if unpopular or disgraceful—enhances their support and increases their perceived justification.
This experiment integrated information from two areas of research - patient perception and belief in a just world (BJW) - that have heretofore offered relatively separate insights into when people will help others. We provided participants an actual opportunity to help a target medical patient and attempted to demonstrate that volunteering is affected by both characteristics of the patient (perceived responsibility for disease onset) and characteristics of the perceiver (BJW). Participants were significantly more likely to help an individual portrayed as not responsible for disease onset, and helping was most pronounced in participants who held a high BJW. Our findings suggest an interactive model of patient perception and helping behavior in which characteristics of the patient interact with characteristics of the perceiver.
There are numerous retailers in the specialty coffee market that sell Fair Trade Coffee (FTC). Some retailers sell FTC to meet the demand of socially responsible consumers, some are motivated by their own concern for small coffee producers and others sell FTC because of the taste profile of a particular FTC grower's coffee. A critical question facing these retailers is how best to position FTC: as good tasting or as socially responsible? This study examines consumers' coffee preferences, their comprehension of labels, the price they are willing to pay for FTC and tests the effectiveness of advertising socially responsible consumption as primary benefit of purchasing FTC. The implications for managing company reputation and communication of social responsibility for FTC are discussed and suggestions are given for advertising strategy and management of Fair Trade productsCorporate Reputation Review (2009) 12, 159-176. doi:10.1057/crr.2009.11
R. B. Cialdini, S. L. Brown, B. P. Lewis, C. Luce, & S. L. Neuberg (1997) present data that they claim challenge the empathy–altruism hypothesis by providing evidence that the effects of empathy on helping are due to self–other merging. Despite S. L. Neuberg et al's (1997) efforts at reassurance, doubts remain about the meaning of these data because they were obtained using scenario procedures and confounded manipulations. Using less questionable methods, C. D. Batson et al. (1997) failed to find evidence that empathy-induced helping was due to self-other merging. At a more fundamental level, the Cialdini et al. challenge rests on apparent misunderstanding of the empathy-altruism hypothesis and, as a result, of appropriate means to test it. Finally, the question of whether empathy leads to anything more than superficial helping is addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Consumer concern for “ethical products”, or ethical aspects of the goods which they purchase, is a subject of increasing interest and research,which is here illustrated by an examination of the Fair Trade movement, with special reference to coffee as an indicative commodity. Kate Bird, is currently Lecturer in the Development Administration Group, School of Public Policy, Birmingham University, Birmingham B15 2TT, England, having previously worked abroad and written her MSc dissertation at Wye College on fair trade in coffee products. Dr Hughest holds the Sainsbury Chair in Agribusiness and Food Marketing at Wye College, University of London, Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH, England (email: D.Hughes@wye.ac.uk), where he is also Director of the Food Industry Management Group. He has wide international experience of food management issues.
Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of justice motivation and the presentation of the victim on the willingness of individuals to extend help to innocent victims. In the first experiment, individuals high and low in their belief in a just world were given an opportunity to offer their time and effort to help a needy victim. High believers in a just world offered less of their time when the victim was presented as one of many victims in a similar predicament than when the victim was presented as an isolated case. Low believers in a just world were not affected by the presentation of the victim, offering less help than Highs in the “isolate” condition and approximately equal help in the “group” condition. In the second experiment, subjects were given an opportunity to donate a portion of their experimental pay anonymously to needly families in the community. High believers in a just world donated more money when the need of the victims was presented as being temporary than when the suffering of the victims was presented as continuing. As was the case in Experiment 1, Lows were not affected by the experimental manipulation. The implications of these findings for an understanding of individuals' reactions to victims are discussed.
Natural disasters and other traumatic events often draw a greater charitable response than do ongoing misfortunes, even those that may cause even more widespread misery, such as famine or malaria. Why is the response disproportionate to need? The notion of reference dependence critical to Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) maintains that self-utility, or benefit to self, is not absolute level of wealth but rather gain or loss relative to a reference point. Four studies show that sympathy (Study 1), dictator offers (Study 2), and judgments of deservingness (Study 3a) are reference-dependent: people respond greater to victims of loss than to victims of chronic conditions. This tendency goes away when people evaluate victims in comparison (Study 3b) and when evaluating affect-poor “statistical victims”, as compared to affect-rich “identifiable victims” (Study 4). Together, these results shed light on seemingly irrational patterns of humanitarian aid.
Mary Mellor and Geoff Moore present case studies of two organizations that have Corporate Social Responsibility in the form of social purpose at the heart of their theory and practice. Traidcraft, a Fair Trading organization and Shared Interest a financial cooperative that supports Fair Trade, both seek to promote Fair Trade as a solution to poverty and marginalization in developing countries. This aim is explored together with an assessment of the radicalism of their approach. Development (2005) 48, 84–91. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100118