Ethical Decisions and Response Mode Compatibility: Weighting of Ethical Attributes in Consideration Sets Formed by Excluding versus Including Product Alternatives
Journal of Marketing Research, Forthcoming
52 Pages Posted: 11 Feb 2009
Date Written: February 9, 2009
Abstract
Across four studies, including one involving an actual monetary decision, the authors demonstrate that forming a product consideration set by excluding versus including alternatives induces consumers to place more weight on ethical attributes, such as company labor practices and animal testing. This nonnormative difference reflects a compatibility between exclusion and ethics, and holds regardless of attribute framing or consumer emotion. In fact, consumers judge others' behavior more negatively for excluding ethical products than for including ethical products. These results have implications for the marketing of ethical products, both specifically (e.g., it is important to encourage exclusion modes) and generally (e.g., the failure to consider ethical products may reflect seemingly minor contextual issues guiding the decision process and not consumer disinterest in ethical issues).
Keywords: consideration sets, ethics, decision making, framing, pick/reject, include/exclude
JEL Classification: D12, D64, D80, D83
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Willful Ignorance in the Request for Product Information
By Kristine Ehrich and Julie R. Irwin
-
Wrongs of Ignorance and Ambiguity: Lawyer Responsibility for Collective Misconduct