Environment-friendly canvas grocery bags have a surprising influence over what products people buy, according to researchers from Harvard Business School (HBS). Not only do reusable bag shoppers choose more organic and environmentally friendly items, but they also buy more indulgent foods, such as cookies and ice cream, compared to other shoppers.
The study suggests that reusable bags encourage shoppers to consciously consider buying environmentally responsible and organic products, but also trigger what’s called a “licensing effect,” when people reward themselves for having taken a positive or noble action.
The researchers, Uma R. Karmarkar, Ph.D., assistant professor of business administration at HBS, and Bryan Bollinger, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, were surprised to find that the influential effects linked to reusable bags were not causal, but seemed to worked in tandem, pushing shoppers in seemingly opposite directions at the same time.
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