Inoculation & Greenwashing: Defending Against Misleading Sustainability Messaging

Abstract

This study sought to investigate whether an inoculation message could influence attitudes and purchase intentions toward sustainability apparel and footwear that some have claimed use ambiguous and misleading environmental claims. Participants (N = 156) were assigned to either an experimental condition in which they received an inoculation message or a control condition where they received a non-threat-inducing message. The results of the experiment indicated that participants in the inoculation condition were more likely than those in the control condition to both resist attitude change and buy sustainable products. These findings provide initial support for the effectiveness of inoculation in “vaccinating” against greenwashing information.

Keywords:

• climate change
• experiment
• Greenwashing
• Inoculation
• Sustainability

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. An independent samples t-test determined that there was a significant difference between the inoculation group and the control group when it came to the elicitation of threat, t(148.48) = −12.97, p < .01.

2. Additional regression analyses were performed to assess whether characteristics of involvement, including environmental knowledge and trait level altruism, predicted posttest attitudes. These analyses did not yield significant results (b = −.107, p = .359; b = .051, p = .430).