4.7 Article

Neural responses clarify how ecolabels promote sustainable purchases

Journal

NEUROIMAGE
Volume 263, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119668

Keywords

Neuroeconomics; Sustainability; Ecolabeling; Accumbens; Frontal; Human; FMRI

Funding

  1. Precourt Institute for Energy
  2. Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging
  3. Woods Institute
  4. Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources

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The Energy Star label increases activity in neural regions associated with positive affective responses, particularly in more impulsive individuals. Group-averaged NAcc activity can also account for consumer demand for similar sustainable product combinations.
While behavioral and policy interventions such as ecolabels (e.g., the Energy Star label) promote sustainable purchases, the reason for their influence remains unclear. We combined incentive-compatible purchasing exper-iments, neuroimaging assessments, and a national stated choice survey to examine how the Energy Star label might influence choices of light bulbs within individuals, across individuals ( n = 36), and out-of-sample in a national survey ( n = 1550). Presence of the Energy Star label increased activity in neural regions associated with positive affective responses that predicted purchasing (e.g., the Nucleus Accumbens or NAcc), particularly in more impulsive individuals. Group-averaged NAcc activity could also account for consumer demand for sim-ilar sustainable product combinations in a national survey. These findings suggest that ecolabels may leverage affective responses in individuals as well as markets to promote sustainable purchases, which might inform the promotion of sustainable products.

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