The Myth of the Ethical Consumer Paperback with DVD

by Timothy M. Devinney, Pat Auger, Giana M. Eckhardt

Do consumers really care where products come from and how they are made? Is there such a thing as an ‘ethical consumer'? Corporations and policy makers are bombarded with international surveys purporting to show that most consumers want ethical products. Yet when companies offer such products they are often met with indifference and limited uptake. It seems that survey radicals turn into economic conservatives at the checkout. This book reveals not only why the search for the ‘ethical consumer' is futile but also why the social aspects of consumption cannot be ignored. Consumers are revealed to be much more deliberative and sophisticated in how they do or do not incorporate social factors into their decision making. Using first-hand findings and extensive research, The Myth of the Ethical Consumer provides academics, students and leaders in corporations and NGOs with an enlightening picture of the interface between social causes and consumption. A half-hour documentary capturing interviews with consumers in eight countries is included on an accompanying DVD.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction

253 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2010

Reviews

[Barney]

This book was equal parts useful and frustrating for me.

I think it's useful because of the information content. I think it's frustrating because of the war it wages on the term "ethical consumer", mainly for the lulz and to make a flashier title, it seems to me.

The main thesis of the book is: the so called ethical consumer is a myth, and we must dispel it for various reasons. It begins by defining the ethical consumer as mythically as possible, for example, it posits that en ethical consumer is ethical all the time, in all of their choices.

It then proceeds to talk about a series of experiments, and draw a series of interesting conclusions: that people to a large extent prefer ethical alternatives, all other things being equal, that people prefer ethical alternatives drastically less when that comes with less functionality or with a significant price hike, that simple demographics (age, gender et al.) are not good predictors for ethical consuming. Or, very importantly, that people say one thing in surveys about supporting ethical goods, but that when given real trade-offs, they don't do as they said, a lot of the time.

Somewhat interesting data, although reading the analysis, I felt a bit strange, as the authors kept coming back to why this ethical consumer is a myth, since, for example, people who care about child labour in producing shoes, don't seem to care equally about the environmental impact of their batteries, so how can they be ethical? They must be rationally making choices about their purchases! Which means they care more about themselves than all social and environmental causes simultaneously! Therefore they are not ethical. The book also keeps putting ethical in double quotes, as if the authors don't want the readers to even consider that the authors think that ethical consumers even exist. All this seems a bit of a stretch to me. What's more, the authors fail to account for one important (I believe) factor that makes people not consume ethically: THEIR BLOODY BUDGET. A person who lives paycheck to paycheck, would rarely consider to buy something ethical that's a good deal more expensive, not because they don't support that, but because they need to survive, clothe themselves, and so on. All in all, I'd say that the data gave me the impression that ethical consumers exist, there's a lot of them, but they need to balance ethical consumption with living their life.

The second thing that makes me queasy about the analysis, is the staunchly pro-corporate viewpoint it takes. The authors keep talking about the value created for producers and consumers. The rights of the workers are mentioned in passing, in parentheses, and there is nowhere even the notion that profits could be lowered, as an ethical choice. Consumption is considered a sacred cow (at one point, it is described as having "beauty" (!)), and of course, whether people want to consume more ethically, is simply a matter of individual taste. Because supporting the emancipation of workers in the Third World from their tyrants who profit off of them, is a matter of taste.

All in all, read for the info, and then keep an eye out for deliciously oblivious pro-corporate nuggets. You'll end up writing comments on the book in all caps, but it will be fun, in a morbid way. And you'll learn a lot in the process!