Study finds Fair Trade logo boosts consumer's willingness to pay
Thursday, August 27, 2015 - 08:20
in Psychology & Sociology
Products labeled with a Fair Trade logo cause prospective buyers to dig deeper into their pockets. In an experiment conducted at the University of Bonn, participants were willing to pay on average 30 percent more for ethically produced goods, compared to their conventionally produced counterparts. The neuroscientists analyzed the neural pathways involved in processing products with a Fair Trade emblem. They identified a potential mechanism that explains why Fair Trade products are evaluated more positively. For instance, activity in the brain's reward center increases and thereby alters willingness to pay computations. The study results have now been published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.