by Richard
It’s a movement that’s sweeping not only the nation, but the world. Go green, we’re constantly extorted. Reduce your carbon footprint. (Which doesn’t mean lop off a couple of toes to get a smaller shoe size. Trust me on this one. — Your friend, Limpy)
Of course, just like with every attempt to do something good for the planet, there are those who try to ruin the whole thing for the rest of us.
. . . buying those same products can have the opposite effect. Researchers found that buying green can lead people into less altruistic behaviour, and even make them more likely to steal and lie than after buying conventional products. Buying products that claim to be made with low environmental impact can set up “moral credentials” in people’s minds that give license to selfish or questionable behavior.
Well. Isn’t that special?
Let’s try to put this into more concrete terms, shall we? Pretend you’ve just been a good dude and you’ve helped out a nice, little old lady at the grocery story. She was struggling with getting all her bags of cat food into the trunk of her 1977 Cadillac. You walked up, assured her you weren’t going to do anything mean to her, and then offered to help her load her cat food. Very nice. You’ve been good.
However, according to this, if we extend the analogy, after helping the nice, little old lady you’ll be more likely to gun the motor and run down that really slow old dude tottering through the cross walk as you’re leaving.
Okay, it’s probably not completely accurate, but I think it gives you the gist of the thing.
“This was not done to point the finger at consumers who buy green products. The message is bigger,” says Nina Mazar, a marketing professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and a self-admitted green consumer. “At the end of the day, if we do one moral thing, IT doesn’t necessarily mean we will be morally better in other things as well.”
All of which means, I’m thinking, that you have to be more on your guard than you are right now. If you think about this sort of thing, I believe we’ll be more likely to avoid the push back. And that’s a good thing. And also a very important lesson to impart to our little dudes and dudettes.
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Whatever happened to the Boy Scouts “Be prepared” and “Do a good turn daily” stuff? I quess even the Boy Scouts could be led down the “dark side” by doing the “right thing” on a regular basis. No wonder so many Wall Street Execs are Eagle Scouts.