How good products make you feel: The underlying emotions of ethical consumerism

Ethical consumerism describes a more conscious way of consumption embracing products which are produced in a fair and/or environmentally positive manner. This paper investigates this growing market by explaining which emotions are evoked by these ethical products. It is argued that the psychological fundament for purchasing green products is “feeling good”, “feeling moral” and “feeling powerful”. First, “feeling good” embraces positive emotions and effects on one’s own health and well- being. Secondly, “feeling moral” describes evoked feelings of morality and altruistic concerns about human, animal, and environmental welfare. Thirdly, “feeling powerful” focuses on ethical consumerism as means to increase one’s own power and social status. Each of these emotions is analyzed by psychological theories and a practical example. At the end of the paper, the effect of the negative emotions such as fear and anger, and the possibility to combine various emotional strategies are discussed

Development and implementation of effective pro-environmental campaigns: Psychological strategies and case study

It is generally acknowledged that human behavior is one of the main factors contributing to climate change. Therefore, there is an increasing need for campaigns addressing environmentally unfriendly habits while promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle. These ecological campaigns are able to improve their effectiveness by integrating various psychological strategies and theories. Furthermore, statistical analyses enable campaigners to gain more insight into attitudes, norms and behaviors of their target group, and even enable the setting of benchmarks for further campaigns. Based on psychological studies this paper proposes a general design for such a pro-environmental campaign. This design comprises 1) identifying the target group, 2) identifying effective strategies, 3) implementing the campaign and 4) evaluating the implementation. In consideration of this proposed design the last section provides a practical example: the applied strategies of Opower - a company which claims to foster ecological behavior change in households