| Résumé |
Abstract: "Numerous studies support the idea of ethical consumerism by showing that people care about business ethics and want to buy ethical products. However, consumers do not seem very eager to back up thoseclaims at the registers. This issue has attracted the attention of academics and practitioners, and has become known in literature as the ethical consumption attitude behavior gap. The purpose of this work is two - fold. Firstly, it aims to bring a new perspective to the issue by setting it in a context of evolutionary theories of behavior and psychological theories of motivation. Secondly, it draws attention to the problem of social desirability bias in ethical consumerism research, and aspires to offer a more reliable study by attempting to prevent this type of error. The discussed theories of human behavior and motivation do not appear to provide very solid foundations for the notion of ethical consumerism. A desire for a good reputation, rooted in indirect reciprocity, can motivate some forms of ethical purchasing as means of «virtue signaling” but those are likely limited to publicly visible, recognizable goods. Feelings of empathy could stimulate ethical purchasing decisions, but they are far removed from an everyday shopping context. Finally, the need for self-transcendence proposed by the revisited version of Maslow’s hierarchy is unlikely to affect enough people to have a sufficient impact, and may be constrained by the content of ethical beliefs. An online survey was purposefully designed to avoid social desirability bias. Its results indicate that in contrast to earlier perceived reliable studies, business ethics do not directly influence the increased ethical consumption behavior of consumers. Only 10 % of respondents from developing countries and 17% of subjects from developed nations displayed some form of ethical considerations in their purchasing decisions."
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CDTM de Paris
Centre de ressources sur le commerce équitable
