The psychology of preference for ethically labelled products

In a review paper published in 2013, by Gunne Grankvist, with a PhD in Psychology, it was explained that the purpose of ethically, social or socially aware labelling is that consumers in the developed world should be given the possibility of choosing product alternatives that have a more favourable effect on the communities in the third world, where goods with these labells are produced. It was furthermore pointed out that the Fairtrade label is the dominant ethical or social labelling and the lion's share of the academic research into consumer attitudes to products with such labelling has been carried out with Fairtrade labelled product alternatives in focus.

One main results was that women generally have a more positive attitude towards Fairtrade products than men.

Another. and very interesting result was that if factors such as good working conditions were set against the products being produced in an eco-friendly manner, the social or employee right aspects, and in particular the fact that no child labour had occurred, were rated as more important than the fact that the products were produced in an eco-friendly way. The social, or human, aspect thus seemed to be at least as or more important than the environmental aspect.

Reference
Grankvist, G. (2013). Consumer attitudes to ethically labelled products. University West. Sweden.
See http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A605063&dswid=article