KOREASCHOLAR

We investigate how two concurrent multimodal sensory primes affect consumers’ evaluation of green products. More specifically, we study how an action of physical cleansing—which enables consumers to smell cleaning scents and offers them a sensation of physical cleanliness—influence their subsequent green detergent choices. Based on the theory of embodied cognition (Barsalou, 2008), we theorize that the two sensory inputs can simultaneously prime morality and cleaning effectiveness—two related yet different concepts—, which can be diagnostic for green product evaluations. The results of two studies show that both the cleaning effectiveness and the primed morality affect how consumers judge a green detergent. On the one hand, consumers infer how effective the detergent is from its scent strength and artificiality – the milder and the more natural the scent is perceived to be, the ―greener‖ and the less effective the detergent is judged to be compared to a regular, non-green alternative. On the other hand, the act of physical cleansing primes the sense of moral superiority of consumers relative to ―others.‖ The consumers who feel morally superior to others then underestimate how attractive the green detergent is going to be to ―other consumers‖ in the market (i.e., to the rest of the market). Our research contributes to both the psychophysiology and the green marketing literature. Regarding the former, we demonstrate a novel multisensory interaction effect by investigating how the brain deals with two competing primed concepts at the same time. Regarding the latter, our findings explain why making people feel moral does not always promote green or ethical consumption (Khan & Dhar, 2006; Mazar & Zhong, 2010). Apart from the account of moral licensing, we further identify that self-based green choices are largely utilitarian and driven by a pragmatic self-interest rather than by morality.

• Jen-Hsien Hsu(De Montfort University, UK)
• J. Joško Brakus(University of Leeds, UK)