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To cite this article: Arminda Maria Finisterra do Paço & Rosa Reis (2012) Factors Affecting Skepticism toward Green
Advertising, Journal of Advertising, 41:4, 147-155, DOI: 10.1080/00913367.2012.10672463
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FACTORS AFFECTING SKEPTICISM TOWARD GREEN ADVERTISING
Arminda Maria Finisterra do Paço and Rosa Reis
ABSTRACT: Despite the growth of green marketing, there is a shortage of studies on green communication. Thus, this
research aims to understand whether consumers who are concerned about the environment conserve resources and have
environmentally friendly buying habits and whether they are skeptical about the green communications conveyed by
companies. Using a proposal of a model about skepticism toward green advertising, several hypotheses are tested. The
results indicate that the more environmentally concerned an individual is, the more skepticism he or she will be toward
green claims exhibited on packages or featured in ads. In addition, results indicated no significant differences between
men and women regarding this skepticism.
During the past few decades, companies’ investments in envi- importance of this issue, the objective of the present research is
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ronmental activities have drawn significant attention from the to understand whether consumers who are concerned about the
media (Iyer and Banerjee 1993) and society in general (Paço environment conserve resources and who have environmentally
and Raposo 2009). Indeed, the media have played a major role friendly buying habits are, in fact, skeptical about the commu-
in the widespread dissemination of environmental concerns. nication conveyed by green companies. If skepticism is found,
The massive media coverage of environmental disasters and it is necessary to reflect on the best ways to communicate such
conflicts helped to transform many specific problems into messages to avoid disappointing current green consumers and
major public issues (Qader and Zainuddin 2011). alienating other consumers.
As a result of the media focus on initiatives related to ecol- Thus, consumer ambivalence about environmental market-
ogy, environmental protection, environmental degradation, ing and advertising practices needs to be accessed. To Mohr,
and climate change, individuals are increasingly concerned Eroglu, and Ellen (1998), consumer reluctance toward envi-
about the planet. This general concern has increased levels ronmental claims is of great importance for public policymak-
of environmental awareness and changed the way people live ers, consumer researchers, and practitioners. The study of this
and the products they purchase. Green consumers’ orientation topic could contribute to gaining a better understanding of
has thus increased interest in the link between marketing, green consumers.
consumer behavior, and the environment (Awad 2011). The present research is based on a sample of Portuguese
However, despite the growth of green marketing, marketers individuals. In general, Europeans (in the 27 member countries
still do not have the adequate tools for evaluating the success of the European Union) attach great importance to environ-
of advertising relative to consumers’ attitudes, intentions, mental protection (96%), with almost everyone stating that
and behaviors. This is reinforced by Haytko and Matulich, the issue is very or fairly important to them. In Portugal, for
who state “previous research into consumers’ attitudes toward instance, this percentage was even higher—97% (European
green advertising and the environment has concluded different Commission 2008). However, regarding behaviors among the
results over time” (2008, p. 2). Portuguese population, Paço and Raposo state, “despite their
Along with the growth of green communication, the ques- support for policies designed to improve the environment,
tion of skepticism in relation to environmental appeals has [they] do not translate their concerns into actions. . . . Their
arisen. Given that skepticism diminishes the positive impact of participation is often based on protecting the environment by
communication, its analysis is relevant and may allow compa- saving electricity and water, which shows that these concerns
nies to design better communications and enhance their effects may be more closely related with economic factors than with an
among consumers (Mohr, Eroglu, and Ellen 1998). Given the environmental consciousness” (2009, p. 375). Another study,
by Paço and Varejão (2010), about the factors affecting energy-
Arminda Maria Finisterra do Paço (Ph.D., University of Beira
Interior, Portugal) is a professor of marketing, Department of Busi-
ness and Economics–Research Unit NECE, University of Beira
Interior, Covilhã, Portugal. The NECE—R&D Centre is funded by the Multiannual Funding
Rosa Reis (M.S., University of Beira Interior, Portugal) is the Programme of the R&D Centres of the FCT (Portuguese Foundation
secretary to the director, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, Guarda, for Science and Technology), Ministry of Science, Technology, and
Portugal. Higher Education, Portugal.
Journal of Advertising, vol. 41, no. 4 (Winter 2012), pp. 147–155.
© 2013 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved. Permissions: www.copyright.com
ISSN 0091–3367 (print) / ISSN 1557–7805 (online)
DOI: 10.2753/JOA0091-3367410410
148 The Journal of Advertising
saving behaviors reached the same conclusion. Furthermore, Banerjee, Gulas, and Iyer (1995) indicate that a green
in the Eurobarometer report (European Commission 2008), advertisement is the one that may clearly or implicitly ad-
Portugal presented very low values in the item connected with dress the link between a product and the environment; it
the purchase of environmentally friendly products. In general, should be able to encourage green lifestyles and improve the
75% of the respondents said they would buy environmentally socially responsible corporate image. Furthermore, according
friendly products, but only 17% had done so. to Carlson et al. (1996), green advertising is a way of promot-
This paper is structured as follows. It starts with a brief ing environmental awareness and stimulating the demand of
literature review in which green communication, advertising, green products. Awad (2011) suggests that green advertising
and skepticism toward environmental claims is discussed in and producers’ claims should be assessed not only in the final
the context of green marketing. Based on the theoretical foun- product, but also on the resources used in production, packag-
dation, a proposal of a research model of skepticism toward ing, distribution, and disposal.
green advertising is presented. The methodology section then Green advertising must be legal and honest, and consistent
follows describing how the research was conducted (sample, with environmental regulations and policies regarding fair
methods, variable measurement). Next, the results of the competition (Pranee 2010). Today, however, consumers are not
statistical analyses are presented with a commentary. Finally, only confused about green advertising claims but also distrust-
conclusions, limitations, and implications are discussed. ful of them (Iyer and Banerjee 1993; Shrum, McCarty, and
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the variety of labels, packaging, and environmental appeals is Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) expectancy-value model of atti-
still confusing rather than informative to those who want to tude theory suggests that consumers will have a better attitude
join the green consumption movement (Ottman 1998). For toward products they perceive as more likely to have valued
instance, consumers are so confused by media terminology that attributes. In turn, in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
they are unable to distinguish such terms as “energy efficiency,” (Ajzen 1985), the central idea is that behavioral decisions
“smart energy,” or “energy conservation” (Murphy, Graber, and are not made spontaneously, but are the result of a rational
Stewart 2010). process in which behavior is influenced, although indirectly,
The difficulty in the determination of the “environmen- by attitudes, norms, and perceptions of control. Smith et al.
tal truth” promoted by companies has created a generalized (2008) state that several researchers have studied the extent
skepticism around green advertising (Carlson et al. 1996; to which self-identity might be a useful addition to the TPB,
Mohr, Eroglu, and Ellen 1998; Zinkhan and Carlson 1995). arguing that it is reasonable to assume that there are certain
Environmentally friendly brands are facing significant barriers behaviors for which self-identity is a relevant determinant of
to communicate to this current leery, skeptical, and cynical intentions, and later of the behavior. Thus, the right advertis-
public and this can discourage the development/production ing campaign can help companies better position their brands
of green products. and influence perceptions and beliefs, which in turn will create
Mohr, Eroglu, and Ellen (1998) clarify that skepticism can among consumers a certain predisposition to think and act.
be defined as a cognitive response that varies depending on the Based on the stated literature and given the necessity to
context and the content of communication, and may only reveal deepen current knowledge about the existence of a relationship
itself on certain occasions. Skeptics can be convinced about the between attitudes (environmental concern [EC]), behaviors
veracity of the message through evidence or proof. In contrast, (conservation behavior [CB] and buying behavior [BB]), and
cynicism is a personality characteristic that remains relatively skepticism toward environmental claims (SCE), a model illus-
stable through situations and time. Mohr, Eroglu, and Ellen trating those links was established, as can be seen in Figure 1.
exemplify these differences saying, “an individual with a strong EC, CB, and BB are considered independent variables and SCE
predisposition to doubt the motives for a commercial message will be treated as a dependent variable.
(i.e., a cynic) would be more likely to doubt the substance of According to Ajzen (1988), an attitude can be defined as a
the message (i.e., skeptical) than a person with a low degree of disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object,
cynicism” (1998, p. 33). This suggests it would be more dif- person, institution, or event. Hakkert and Kemp (2006) add
ficult to influence a cynical individual than a skeptical one. that an attitude is acquired through information and/or experi-
In fact, if consumers do not believe in the environmental ence with an object, is a predisposition to respond in a certain
benefits referred to in the ads and labels, the efforts in devel- way, and has to reflect a reliable pattern of positive or negative
oping green communications will be lost; moreover, skeptical reactions to that object. In this research, the attitude will be
consumers may unconsciously give up the chance to help the measured through the level of environmental concern.
environment by buying truly environmentally friendly prod- D’Souza and Taghian (2005) identified the disbelief that con-
ucts. As a result, this suspicion on advertising and other forms sumers sometimes demonstrate toward companies, products,
of marketing communications may diminish marketplace ef- initiatives, or green advertising campaigns. They concluded
ficiency (Mohr, Eroglu, and Ellen 1998). that in general, consumers who are more environmentally
150 The Journal of Advertising
Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior), and perceptions Multiple regression analysis was carried out in addition to
about green advertising (Skepticism Measure). Finally, some the study of the determining coefficients and simple correla-
questions to gather demographic information (age, gender, tion. To see whether functional relationships could be inferred
course, and year of frequency) were included. between the dependent variable (SCE) and the independent
The scales make reference to four dimensions or constructs: variables (EC, CB, and BB), it was necessary to ensure that
the model assumptions were valid. Hence, verification was
• Environmental concern (EC) includes concerns related to
performed to see whether the errors reported an average null
the limits to growth, pollution, steady-state economy,
measurement and constant variance, whether they followed a
and resource conservation (Dunlap and Van Liere
normal pattern of distribution (by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov
1978). This scale was used in subsequent research
test), and whether there was error independence (using the
by Van Liere and Dunlap (1980) and Straughan and
Durbin-Watson test). As the model assumptions were verified,
Roberts (1999).
the model was deemed valid across all variables analyzed. The
• Conservation behavior (CB) is related to conservation
analysis performed is shown in Table 1.
activity and comprises a broad range of items: dispo-
Analysis of the determining coefficient, R2, in which
sitional activity, recycling of nondurable goods and
R2 = .141, enabled us to affirm that 14.1% of the variation
packaging, preservation of resources, attitude toward
in the dependent SCE variable was explained by the EC, CB,
packaging, and so forth (Pickett, Kangun, and Grove
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TABLE 1
Multiple Regression Analysis (EC, CB, BB, and SCE)
Model R R2 R2adj σ[
Analysis of variance
SQ df QM F Significance
Coefficients
Coefficient σ t Significance
TABLE 2
ANOVA (Skepticism Versus Gender)
Sum of Mean
Scale of SCE Mean/SD squares square F Significance
Most environmental claims on package M(3.326, 1.278) .139 .139 .078 .780
labels or presented in advertising are F(3.369, 1.388)
true. (R)
Because environmental claims are M(2.993, 1.580) 1.611 1.611 .669 .414
exaggerated, consumers would be better F(2.847, 1.524)
off if such claims on package labels or in
advertising were eliminated.
Most environmental claims on package M(4.306, 1.548) 4.825 4.825 1.844 .175
labels or in advertising are intended to F(4.052, 1.679)
mislead rather than inform consumers.
I do not believe most environmental M(3.556, 1.594) .041 .041 .016 .899
claims on package labels or presented in F(3.532, 1.595)
advertising.
Skepticism (total scale). M(3.545, 1.104) .679 .679 .542 .462
F(3.450, 1.131)
Notes: ANOVA = analysis of variance; R = reverse; M = male; F = female.
(EC, CB, and BB). This allows us to attest to the existence study, and at the same time, a future line of investigation
of a relationship between the variables EC, CB and BB, and whose aim would be to discover other variables that could
SCE. However, variations in SCE are not entirely explainable better explain skepticism toward green adverting in order
by EC, CB, and BB, which may represent a limitation of this to improve our proposed model. In fact, the more significant
Winter 2012 153
and higher correlation was between conservation behavior and variety of contexts, including one related to the environment.
buying behavior (.640), followed by the correlation between Thus, it can be argued that media exposure is an important
skepticism and environmental concern (–.366). predictor of purchase intention, and therefore, communication
The results of the multiple regression analysis point to the should be carefully planned to avoid causing skepticism and
acceptance of the first hypothesis formulated and to the rejec- reluctance among consumers.
tion of H2 and H3. For H1, the statistical test was significant, While green consumers may be more receptive to green
which indicates that the most concerned consumers are, in marketing and advertising than others, managers should be
fact, the most skeptical toward green communication. This is careful not to push them away by using ambiguous, confus-
in line with D’Souza and Taghian’s (2005) results: Consum- ing, or even false messages. However, Mohr, Eroglu, and Ellen
ers who are more environmentally concerned do not consider (1998) state that skepticism is healthy to a certain point, that
green advertising convincing. This contrasts with Newell, is, the consumer should be skeptical about those areas where
Goldsmith, and Banzhaf’s (1998) finding that a consumer’s there is a potential to mislead. In this case, public policy action
level of environmental concern has little effect on the degree in the form of additional regulation or consumer education
of deception perceived in an ad. may be called for. Global governmental institutions should
The nonsignificance of the statistical tests performed to continue to be involved in regulating misleading advertising,
test H2 and H3 lead us to reject these. Thus, it seems that and in the development of more creative and effective solutions
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behaviors related to environmental conservation activities and to the market dysfunction that may characterize this type of
buying behaviors are not good predictors of SCE. It would environmental regulation. This is also a wonderful opportu-
be expected that the skepticism toward environmental claims nity for companies, together with nonprofit organizations, to
would be related to environmental behaviors and the buying educate and train consumers in order to provide them with
of green products, which did not happen in this research. the tools that will allow them to distinguish between real and
However, Shrum, McCarty, and Lowrey (1995) and Laroche, false environmental claims.
Bergeron, and Barbaro-Forleo (2001) found opposite results. Because this research is exploratory in nature, there are
Thus, this nonsignificant result of the relationship between some limitations that should be considered that may affect
environmental behaviors and skepticism toward green adver- the generalization of the findings. The first is the use of a con-
tising may indicate that consumers who are skeptical of such venience sample of university students. This comes with the
claims can, even so, perform and participate in green activities usual set of caveats, particularly in the study of the relation-
and buy environmentally friendly products. Mohr, Eroglu, and ship between environmental attitudes and buying behaviors.
Ellen (1998) state that many consumers are by nature skepti- Another possible limitation was the choice of the specific scales
cal of advertising claims unless they have reliable bases for used to measure the constructs of our research model.
evaluating the claims. In some cases, what seems to happen In terms of future lines of investigation, we recommend
is that consumers are not entirely influenced by companies’ investigating the development of a structural equation model
communication claims. that could reflect the relationships and interdependencies
To check the significance of gender in relation to skepti- among different constructs, as well as the study of skepticism
cism toward green advertising, an analysis of variance was in greater detail. Specifically, future research should seek to
carried out and the results point to the rejection of H4. In understand how skepticism might change according to the
contrast to Shrum, McCarty, and Lowrey (1995) and Haytko type of media used in green communication.
and Matulich (2008), this research found no significant dif- All these results reinforce the importance of marketers’
ferences between men and women. Nevertheless, according understanding of the issue. They should ask: Why is there
to Shrum, McCarty, and Lowrey (1995), green advertising still skepticism? Why are so many people still suspicious of
should pay attention to detail, since green consumers do so. green claims?
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APPENDIX
Environmental concern (EC)
Humans need not adapt to the natural environment because they can model it to suit their needs. (R)
There are limits to growth beyond which our industrialized society cannot expand.
The balance of nature is delicate and easily upset.
When humans interfere with nature, it often produces disastrous consequences.
Humans must live in harmony with nature in order to survive.
Mankind is severely abusing the environment.
Humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs. (R)
Humankind was created to rule over the rest of nature.
How often do you separate your household garbage (i.e., glass, papers) for either curbside pickup or to take to the nearest recycling center?
How often do you use reusable containers to store food in your refrigerator rather than wrapping food in aluminum foil or plastic wrap?
How often do you conserve water while washing dishes?
How often do you conserve energy by turning off light switches when leaving a room, turning down the thermostat when leaving home, and so
forth?
How often do you conserve water while brushing your teeth, shaving, washing your hands, bathing, and so forth?
When disposing of durables such as appliances, furniture, clothing, linens, and so forth, how often do you either give that item to someone else,
sell it to someone else, or donate the item to a charitable organization?
How often do you refuse to buy products that you feel have extensive packaging?
Skepticism (SCE)