Cognitive Design

The ethical consumer movement recognizes that people want to buy products and services that align with their values and moral beliefs.  They want to do business with firms that demonstrate a high degree of social responsibility. Globally fair labor practices, low-environmental impact, no animal testing and other cause-related issues are at the heart of the matter.

Value alignment, moral beliefs and ethics are all powerful psychological stuff.  That is why I was a bit surprised by the findings presented in a recent strategy+business article on Values versus Value.  In it they argue that ethical products and services (with some notable exceptions) occupy a niche and more importantly the reality of values-based purchasing might be mostly a myth:

“Proponents of ethical consumerism want to believe that people’s socially oriented choices are somehow different — perhaps made at a higher level of consciousness — from their general product choices. This is a delusion. Product ethics are more important only when individuals, comparing such ethics to all the other things that have value to them, determine that they are more important. And our research shows that for many people, this is seldom the case.”

While the points raised in the article appear valid, I am concerned that they might be generated by a lack of good cognitive design rather than anything more fundamental. It is a bit like appreciating Art. It is often difficult to do with out proper context or orientation. The authors may agree:

“For more ethically oriented consumption to really take hold, the consumer needs to become a knowledgeable participant, not a reader of labels. Rather than relying on traditional market research techniques, firms need to help their existing and future consumers become more socially conscious in their purchasing.”

Bottom line – we need to use a more sophisticated view of moral cognition in the design of ethical products and services, if we want them to change the world.