“I Drink It Anyway and I Know I Shouldn't”: Understanding Green Consumers' Positive Evaluations of Norm-violating Non-green Products and Misleading Green Advertising

Consumers increasingly report concern for the environment and acceptance of green products, but few opt for them in stores. This mixed-methods study adds context and helps specify the details of this attitude–behavior gap. First, a preliminary study relies on framing theory to conduct an exploratory content analysis of green advertising frames in four cross-platform women's lifestyle programming (website, magazine, and TV shows). Data indicate green-ad frames are commonplace in beauty, food, and household products advertisements, but claims are ambiguous and unsubstantiated. Drawing on theories of motivated reasoning, evolutionary psychology and the Persuasion Knowledge Model, the main study incorporates data from focus group interviews to understand how green consumers rationalize their non-green attitudes and positive evaluations of environmentally inferior products. Although consumers are skeptical of these green ads, they are ultimately accepting of the claims and rationalize their norm-violating positive evaluations in ways that amplify the non-green claims.