Scandals Reveal How Much Consumers Really Care about ESG
When negative news broke about a company, sales dropped up to 10 percent.
Scandals Reveal How Much Consumers Really Care about ESGHouseholds produce a large share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, whether by consuming energy at home or burning fuel to travel. This makes individual actions crucial in mitigating climate change, but how can policy makers encourage more responsible behavior? Chicago Booth’s Michael Weber and his coresearchers sought to explore one possible avenue through a randomized trial, assigning respondents of a national survey in Germany to one of four treatment groups that received information from peer or expert sources about the impact of emissions on climate change and the ways people can reduce their carbon footprint. All four groups reported a greater willingness to act—in this case, to spend on carbon offsets—relative to a fifth group, a control that received no information on climate change. The researchers find that information framed as coming from peers created the strongest effect. To learn more, read “Peer Pressure Can Help Fight Climate Change.”
Illustration by Peter Arkle
When negative news broke about a company, sales dropped up to 10 percent.
Scandals Reveal How Much Consumers Really Care about ESGTelling people about the efforts of others can inspire them to reduce their own emissions.
Peer Pressure Can Help Fight Climate ChangeWhether donors give to express support or make progress toward a goal can affect their donation behavior.
How Charities Can Get More Donors or Bigger DonationsYour Privacy
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