1. Things about consumers that make firms act badly December 8, 2010

2. Overview Why don’t consumers behave perfectly? – What gets in the way? How can we help people with good intentions act according to them? How can we help other people develop good intentions, too?

3. Talking and walking… 30% of consumer say they would purchase ethical products How many actually do? 3% Futerra, 2005

4. Why? Some of the mismatch between intentions and behavior is overoptimistic intentions Not much we can do about that… How do we get those with good intentions to follow up on them? – How do we get those without good intentions to follow through too?

5. Getting good people to stay good We’ve already seen some ways that help: – Make sure they know what opportunities exist, and how they can find them – Make sure they have gentle guidance, to help them make the choice they want to make – Etc. What else can they do?

6. Implementation intentions

7. Calculated ignorance Ehrich & Irwin, 2005

8. What do they focus on? Ask about money, morals don’t matter Ask about other qualities, they do Irwin & Baron, 2001

9. Context matters Paharia et al., 2009

10. Positive cueing Many things people do are good for the environment, but they do them for other reasons – For example, turning the lights out, or not littering Or they do them so often they don’t register – Recycling, riding the bus What if we remind people that those behaviors are environmentally friendly?

11. Positive cueing Reminding people that they often perform environmentally friendly behaviors… Makes them think that they are more environmentally conscious… Which makes them more inclined to perform less common environmentally friendly behaviors Cornelisson et al., 2008

12. Self-control is a resource Experiment on “taste perception” conducted in lab where cookies were baking Participant presented with plate of radishes and plate of cookies; assigned to taste only radishes (self-control) or only cookies (no self- control); given 5 minutes to do so DM: subsequent persistence on an unsolvable “tracing” puzzle Baumeister et al., 1998

13. Ego depletion Baumeister et al., 1998

14. Depletion and cheating

15. Reframing attention

16. Attentional myopia

18. How “bad” people allow bad companies What if people don’t have the inclination to be responsible? – How does that happen?

19. Moral hypocrisy The motivation to appear moral without engendering the costs of being moral – Whenever there’s wiggle room, there can be moral hypocrisy

20. Moral hypocrisy Batson et al., 1997

21. Moral hypocrisy Valdesolo & Desteno, 2007

22. Self-Deception Part of this is self-deception: people don’t believe that they are doing wrong – People are “intuitive lawyers” People also accept “ethical fading” because they don’t want to know otherwise – Euphemisms (“downsizing”) – Slippery slopes (when do we start to complain?) – Errors in perceptual causation (BP gas stations) – We are constrained by who we are (we just can’t be objective) Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004

23. Techniques of Neutralization Denial of responsibility – It wasn’t my fault! Denial of injury – They have so many stores, they’ll never miss one book Denial of victim – If they priced thing fairly, I wouldn’t have to steal Condemning the condemners – Like they’ve never done anything wrong! Appeal to higher loyalties – I did it to prove a point

24. Techniques of Neutralization Denial of responsibility – The company made the products, not me Denial of injury – It’s just one light bulb! Denial of victim – Everybody else does the same thing, so they must not care Condemning the condemners – Like they’ve never done anything wrong! Appeal to higher loyalties – I need to be able to afford to feed my family

25. Summary We can help people with good intentions act according to them, by… – Making them have a plan, or listen to the right info – Asking them the right questions – Avoiding times when they don’t have the resources to make the right choice, or guiding them if necessary We can help other people “develop” good intentions, too, by… – Not giving them wiggle room – Not letting them fool themselves about the consequences of their actions