The paradox of ‘green to be seen’: Green high-status shoppers excessively use (branded) shopping bags

This research conceptually replicates, in a real-world setting, prior lab findings showing that status motives make people publicly display sustainable behavior. The results show that shoppers of a high-status sustainable grocery chain display sustainable shopping more by using branded shopping bags than shoppers of a lower-status chain. Extending previous findings, we demonstrate the non-sustainable costs of acting sustainably for status reasons: high-status “green” shoppers are more likely to buy new bags rather than bring their own.