IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v76y2024ics0969698923002825.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dark side of going green: Dark triad traits predict organic consumption through virtue signaling, status signaling, and praise from others

Author

Listed:
  • Konuk, Faruk Anıl
  • Otterbring, Tobias

Abstract

The current study sought to test whether the dark triad personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy can be indirectly linked to organic food consumption through consumers’ levels of virtue signaling, status consumption, and praise from others. Based on a survey (N = 337) and structural equation modeling, we found consistent evidence for the notion that the links between each dark triad trait and (a) organic food purchase intentions, and (b) willingness to pay (WTP) for organic foods are mediated by status consumption and praise from others. Additionally, virtue signaling mediated this interplay for people who exhibit high (vs. low) degrees of narcissism and Machiavellianism, but not those who exhibit high (vs. low) degrees of psychopathy. Given that sustainability-related responses are typically portrayed as prosocial and positive, these results paint a more complex picture, with our findings linking organic consumption to a set of dark personality traits.

Suggested Citation

  • Konuk, Faruk Anıl & Otterbring, Tobias, 2024. "The dark side of going green: Dark triad traits predict organic consumption through virtue signaling, status signaling, and praise from others," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0969698923002825
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103531
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698923002825
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103531?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gidlöf, Kerstin & Lahm, Erik Stoltenberg & Wallin, Annika & Otterbring, Tobias, 2021. "Eco depletion: The impact of hunger on prosociality by means of environmentally friendly attitudes and behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Kapoor, Payal S. & M S, Balaji & Maity, Moutusy & Jain, Nikunj Kumar, 2021. "Why consumers exaggerate in online reviews? Moral disengagement and dark personality traits," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    3. Bar, Amit & Otterbring, Tobias, 2021. "The role of culture and personality traits in board game habits and attitudes: Cross-cultural comparison between Denmark, Germany, and USA," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Cuixin Yuan & Ying Hong & Junjie Wu, 2022. "Does Facebook activity reveal your dark side? Using online language features to understand an individual’s dark triad and needs," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 292-306, January.
    5. Gierl, Heribert & Huettl, Verena, 2010. "Are scarce products always more attractive? The interaction of different types of scarcity signals with products' suitability for conspicuous consumption," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 225-235.
    6. Andrew Harrison & James Summers & Brian Mennecke, 2018. "The Effects of the Dark Triad on Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 53-77, November.
    7. Yadav, Rambalak, 2016. "Altruistic or egoistic: Which value promotes organic food consumption among young consumers? A study in the context of a developing nation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 92-97.
    8. Demsar, Vlad & Sands, Sean & Rosengren, Sara & Campbell, Colin, 2022. "Ad creativity in a negative context: How a thanking message frame enhances purchase intention in times of crisis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Iaia, Lea & Leonelli, Simona & Masciarelli, Francesca & Christofi, Michael & Cooper, Sir Cary, 2022. "The malevolent side of masstige consumers’ behavior: The role of dark triad and technology propensity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 954-966.
    10. Molinillo, Sebastian & Vidal-Branco, Murilo & Japutra, Arnold, 2020. "Understanding the drivers of organic foods purchasing of millennials: Evidence from Brazil and Spain," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    11. Joseph Henrich & Steve J. Heine & Ara Norenzayan, 2010. "The Weirdest People in the World?," RatSWD Working Papers 139, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    12. Kristensson, Per & Wästlund, Erik & Söderlund, Magnus, 2017. "Influencing consumers to choose environment friendly offerings: Evidence from field experiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 89-97.
    13. Netemeyer, Richard G. & Krishnan, Balaji & Pullig, Chris & Wang, Guangping & Yagci, Mehmet & Dean, Dwane & Ricks, Joe & Wirth, Ferdinand, 2004. "Developing and validating measures of facets of customer-based brand equity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 209-224, February.
    14. Deanne Hartog & Frank Belschak, 2012. "Work Engagement and Machiavellianism in the Ethical Leadership Process," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 35-47, April.
    15. Rubin, Mark, 2021. "When to adjust alpha during multiple testing: A consideration of disjunction, conjunction, and individual testing," MetaArXiv tj6pm, Center for Open Science.
    16. Saad, Gad & Sejean, Richard & Greengross, Gil & Cherkas, Lynn, 2020. "Are identical twins more similar in their decision making styles than their fraternal counterparts?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 638-643.
    17. Cindy Chung & Peter Darke, 2006. "The consumer as advocate: Self-relevance, culture, and word-of-mouth," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 269-279, December.
    18. Chan, Wing Yin & To, Chester K.M. & Chu, Wai Ching, 2015. "Materialistic consumers who seek unique products: How does their need for status and their affective response facilitate the repurchase intention of luxury goods?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-10.
    19. S. Yousaf & Muhammad Zubair Tauni & B. Khan, 2022. "Dark Triad Traits and Panic Buying," Post-Print hal-04452857, HAL.
    20. Hwang, Jiyoung, 2016. "Organic food as self-presentation: The role of psychological motivation in older consumers' purchase intention of organic food," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 281-287.
    21. Begum Kaplan & Easwar S. Iyer, 2021. "Motivating sustainable behaviors: The role of religiosity in a cross‐cultural context," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 792-820, September.
    22. Sandrine Costa & Lydia Zepeda & Lucie Sirieix, 2014. "Exploring the social value of organic food: a qualitative study in France," Post-Print hal-01506305, HAL.
    23. Loebnitz, Natascha & Frank, Phillip & Otterbring, Tobias, 2022. "Stairway to organic heaven: The impact of social and temporal distance in print ads," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1044-1057.
    24. Fifita, 'Ilaisaane M.E. & Seo, Yuri & Ko, Eunju & Conroy, Denise & Hong, Dayun, 2020. "Fashioning organics: Wellbeing, sustainability, and status consumption practices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 664-671.
    25. Elaine Wallace & Isabel Buil & Leslie Chernatony, 2020. "‘Consuming Good’ on Social Media: What Can Conspicuous Virtue Signalling on Facebook Tell Us About Prosocial and Unethical Intentions?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 577-592, March.
    26. Sexton, Steven E. & Sexton, Alison L., 2014. "Conspicuous conservation: The Prius halo and willingness to pay for environmental bona fides," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 303-317.
    27. Han, Myat Su & Hampson, Daniel Peter & Wang, Yonggui & Wang, Hong, 2022. "Consumer confidence and green purchase intention: An application of the stimulus-organism-response model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    28. Prentice, Catherine & Chen, Jue & Wang, Xuequn, 2019. "The influence of product and personal attributes on organic food marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 70-78.
    29. Xinshu Zhao & John G. Lynch & Qimei Chen, 2010. "Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(2), pages 197-206, August.
    30. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.
    31. Septianto, Felix & Kemper, Joya & Paramita, Widya, 2019. "The role of imagery in promoting organic food," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 104-115.
    32. Otterbring, Tobias, 2021. "Peer presence promotes popular choices: A “Spicy†field study on social influence and brand choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    33. Andersch, Henrike & Arnold, Christian & Seemann, Ann-Kathrin & Lindenmeier, Jörg, 2019. "Understanding ethical purchasing behavior: Validation of an enhanced stage model of ethical behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 50-59.
    34. Mehmet A. Orhan & Brian Collisson, 2022. "Who Said There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch? Customers' Dark Triad Traits Predict Abuse of Food Refund Policies," Post-Print hal-04300354, HAL.
    35. Sadiq, Mohd & Bharti, Kumkum & Adil, Mohd & Singh, Ramendra, 2021. "Why do consumers buy green apparel? The role of dispositional traits, environmental orientation, environmental knowledge, and monetary incentive," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yadav, Rambalak & Yadav, Radha, 2024. "Are consumers ready to adopt electric vehicles? Analyzing the barriers and motivators associated with electric vehicle adoption in India: Policy implications for various stakeholders," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Raza, Mohsin & Khalid, Rimsha & Loureirco, Sandra Maria Correia & Han, Heesup, 2024. "Luxury brand at the cusp of lipstick effects: Turning brand selfies into luxury brand curruncy to thrive via richcession," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Chae, Myoung-Jin & Kim, Yanghee & Roh, Taewoo, 2024. "Consumers’ attention, experience, and action to organic consumption: The moderating role of anticipated pride and moral obligation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frank, Darius-Aurel & Otterbring, Tobias, 2023. "Being seen… by human or machine? Acknowledgment effects on customer responses differ between human and robotic service workers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Otterbring, Tobias & Folwarczny, Michał, 2024. "Social validation, reciprocation, and sustainable orientation: Cultivating “clean†codes of conduct through social influence," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Alyahya, Mansour & Agag, Gomaa & Aliedan, Meqbel & Abdelmoety, Ziad H., 2023. "A cross-cultural investigation of the relationship between eco-innovation and customers boycott behaviour," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    4. Mohd Sadiq & Mohd Adil & Justin Paul, 2021. "Does social influence turn pessimistic consumers green?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 2937-2950, November.
    5. Kirubaharan Boobalan & Nishad Nawaz & Harindranath R. M. & Vijayakumar Gajenderan, 2021. "Influence of Altruistic Motives on Organic Food Purchase: Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Kumar, Aman & Shankar, Amit & Nayal, Preeti, 2024. "Metaverse is not my cup of tea! An investigation into how personality traits shape metaverse usage intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Sadiq, Mohd & Adil, Mohd & Paul, Justin, 2021. "An innovation resistance theory perspective on purchase of eco-friendly cosmetics," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    8. Otterbring, Tobias, 2021. "Peer presence promotes popular choices: A “Spicy†field study on social influence and brand choice," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    9. Yu, Weiping & Han, Xiaoyun & Ding, Lei & He, Mingli, 2021. "Organic food corporate image and customer co-developing behavior: The mediating role of consumer trust and purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    10. Sung Youl Jun & Tae Wook Ju & Hye Kyung Park & Jacob C. Lee & Tae Min Kim, 2023. "Information distortion in word-of-mouth retransmission: the effects of retransmitter intention and source expertise," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(5), pages 1848-1876, November.
    11. Molinillo, Sebastian & Vidal-Branco, Murilo & Japutra, Arnold, 2020. "Understanding the drivers of organic foods purchasing of millennials: Evidence from Brazil and Spain," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    12. Morais, Ana Catarina & Ishida, Akira & Matsuda, Ruriko, 2024. "Ethical food consumption drivers in Japan. A S–O-R framework application using PLS-SEM with a MGA assessment based on clustering," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    13. Long Niu & Chuntian Lu & Lijuan Fan, 2023. "Social Class and Private-Sphere Green Behavior in China: The Mediating Effects of Perceived Status and Environmental Concern," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-15, February.
    14. Ostovan, Nima & Khalili Nasr, Arash, 2022. "The manifestation of luxury value dimensions in brand engagement in self-concept," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Abdelmoety, Ziad Hassan & Aboul-Dahab, Sameh & Agag, Gomaa, 2022. "A cross cultural investigation of retailers commitment to CSR and customer citizenship behaviour: The role of ethical standard and value relevance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Tan, Fuqiang & Li, Xi & Agarwal, Reeti & Joshi, Yatish & Yaqub, Muhammad Zafar, 2024. "Does multilingual packaging influence purchasing in retail segment? Evidence from multiple experiments," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. He, Yi & You, Ya & Chen, Qimei, 2020. "Our conditional love for the underdog: The effect of brand positioning and the lay theory of achievement on WOM," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 210-222.
    18. Yoon-Na Cho, 2015. "Different Shades of Green Consciousness: The Interplay of Sustainability Labeling and Environmental Impact on Product Evaluations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 73-82, April.
    19. Nilupulee Liyanagamage & Mario Fernando & Belinda Gibbons, 2023. "The Emotional Machiavellian: Interactions Between Leaders and Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 657-673, September.
    20. Elodie Gentina & L. J. Shrum & Tina M. Lowrey & Scott J. Vitell & Gregory M. Rose, 2018. "An Integrative Model of the Influence of Parental and Peer Support on Consumer Ethical Beliefs: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem, Power, and Materialism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1173-1186, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0969698923002825. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.