Department of Marketing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2010 Mar;98(3):392-404. doi: 10.1037/a0017346.
Why do people purchase proenvironmental "green" products? We argue that buying such products can be construed as altruistic, since green products often cost more and are of lower quality than their conventional counterparts, but green goods benefit the environment for everyone. Because biologists have observed that altruism might function as a "costly signal" associated with status, we examined in 3 experiments how status motives influenced desire for green products. Activating status motives led people to choose green products over more luxurious nongreen products. Supporting the notion that altruism signals one's willingness and ability to incur costs for others' benefit, status motives increased desire for green products when shopping in public (but not private) and when green products cost more (but not less) than nongreen products. Findings suggest that status competition can be used to promote proenvironmental behavior.
人们为什么购买环保的“绿色”产品？我们认为，购买此类产品可以被视为利他主义，因为绿色产品通常比传统产品成本更高，质量更低，但绿色商品对每个人都有益环境。因为生物学家观察到，利他主义可能是一种与地位相关的“昂贵信号”，所以我们在 3 项实验中检验了地位动机如何影响对绿色产品的渴望。激发地位动机使人们选择绿色产品而不是更豪华的非绿色产品。这一观点支持了利他主义表明一个人愿意并有能力为他人的利益承担成本的观点，当在公共场合（而不是私人场合）购物时，以及当绿色产品的成本高于（而不是低于）非绿色产品时，地位动机会增加对绿色产品的需求。研究结果表明，地位竞争可以用来促进环保行为。
