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“Look at Me, I’m Buying Organic”: The Effects of Social Pressure on Organic Food Purchases

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  • Kim, Seon-Woong
  • Lusk, Jayson L.
  • Brorsen, B. Wade

Abstract

We investigate whether consumers purchase organic foods to demonstrate social status to others. Subjects were asked to choose among organic and nonorganic milk and apples in a control group and treatments in which: i) an image of another person’s eyes was displayed, ii) responses appeared to not be anonymous, or iii) a vignette placed the choice in the presence of an acquaintance. The vignette treatment increased the willingness-to-pay (WTP) premium for organic by about 90%. The other treatments did not have significant overall effects. When exposed to another person’s eyes, more educated respondents increased their WTP for organic.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Seon-Woong & Lusk, Jayson L. & Brorsen, B. Wade, 2018. "“Look at Me, I’m Buying Organic”: The Effects of Social Pressure on Organic Food Purchases," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 43(3), September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:276500
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.276500
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    3. Wensing, Joana & Caputo, Vincenzina & Carraresi, Laura & Bröring, Stefanie, 2020. "The effects of green nudges on consumer valuation of bio-based plastic packaging," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. Tandon, Anushree & Dhir, Amandeep & Kaur, Puneet & Kushwah, Shiksha & Salo, Jari, 2020. "Why do people buy organic food? The moderating role of environmental concerns and trust," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    5. Vesely, Stepan & Klöckner, Christian A. & Carrus, Giuseppe & Chokrai, Parissa & Fritsche, Immo & Masson, Torsten & Panno, Angelo & Tiberio, Lorenza & Udall, Alina M., 2022. "Donations to renewable energy projects: The role of social norms and donor anonymity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
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    7. Tong Wu & Shida Rastegari Henneberry & John N. Ng’ombe & Richard T. Melstrom, 2020. "Chinese Demand for Agritourism in Rural America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-11, April.
    8. Han, Fei & Zhou, Jiehong & Yan, Zhen & Yin, Shijiu, 2022. "Nudge to be Green? The Influence of Social Comparison on Consumers' Consumption Behaviors: A Case Study of Green Takeaway Packaging," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322228, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Martina Zámková & Stanislav Rojík & Ladislav Pilař & Martina Chalupová & Martin Prokop & Radek Stolín & Paweł Dziekański & Mansoor Maitah, 2021. "Customer Preferences for Organic Agriculture Produce in the Czech Republic: 2016 and 2019," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, October.
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    12. John N. Ng’ombe & B. Wade Brorsen, 2022. "The Effect of Including Irrelevant Alternatives in Discrete Choice Models of Recreation Demand," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(1), pages 71-97, June.

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