How ‘green scepticism’ reduces intention to buy sustainable products

However, many people are now aware of the widespread nature of greenwashing, creating what researchers are calling ‘green scepticism’ – lack of trust in the sustainability claims made by companies. 

New research by Hiroshima University in Japan indicates that green scepticism affects the intention to purchase sustainable products by weakening people’s desire to seek more information. It also causes them to anticipate guilt.  

This challenges the common assumption that sceptical consumers will simply investigate more before deciding which purchases that are truly ‘green’. Until now, the current assumption underlying green scepticism research has been that it stimulates greater information processing and moral engagement. 

The results of the new research by academics from Hiroshima University have been published in the journal Sustainability. 

Scepticism weakens two important drivers of green consumption 

“The most important message is that green scepticism does not simply make consumers reject green products directly,” Eunji Seo, an Associate Professor, explains. “Instead, it works more subtly by weakening two important drivers of green consumption: people’s willingness to look for trustworthy environmental information, and their anticipated guilt about making less sustainable choices. 

“In other words, scepticism can shut down engagement rather than encourage careful verification. This challenges the common assumption that sceptical consumers will just investigate more before deciding.  

“Our findings suggest that, in low-trust environments, scepticism may lead not to deeper scrutiny, but to withdrawal from both cognitive and moral engagement.” 

In practice, the lesson for marketing teams is that addressing green scepticism likely requires credibility-based interventions – such as transparent, verifiable environmental information and strengthened third-party certification – rather than conventional persuasive or moral appeals. 

Seo elaborates: “A useful way to think about this is that scepticism does not always act like a ‘fact-checking engine.’ In many cases, it acts more like a ‘psychological brake,’ reducing consumers’ willingness to engage with green information at all.” 

You can find out more about the study, titled ‘How Green Scepticism Undermines Green Purchase Intention: The Roles of Information Seeking and Anticipated Guilt’ here.