Perceived Greenwashing: The Interactive Effects of Green Advertising and Corporate Environmental Performance on Consumer Reactions

Perceived greenwashing negatively influences consumers' evaluations of ads and brands.

“Strong empirical evidence suggests that, by extension, perceived greenwashing negatively influences consumers' evaluations of ads and brands as well (Newell, Goldsmith, and Banzhaf 1998; Nyilasy, Gangadharbatla, and Paladino 2014)”

Broad claims are made because it is not in the best interest of companies to reduce their low environmental performance or share such details with consumers.

“It is largely found that broad claims are made because it is not in the best interest of companies to reduce their low environmental performance or share such details with consumers [11].”

Perceptions of greenwashing are linked with higher negative evaluations of brands and advertisements.

“previous studies have shown that perceptions of greenwashing are linked with higher negative evaluations of brands and advertisements [10,11]”

Consumer perceptions of greenwashing products are genuine and factual, and such perception has a significant impact on purchase intent and brand attitude.

“There is evidence that consumer perceptions of greenwashing products are genuine and factual, and such perception has a significant impact on purchase intent and brand attitude [11].”

Some studies reported consumers being highly skeptical of greenwashing and companies that claim but do not use it were found to affect the company's success plans.

“Despite a plethora of research, some studies reported consumers being highly skeptical of greenwashing and companies that claim but do not use it, were found to a ect the company's success plans [11,20,31].”

High environmentalists more often perceive greenwashing as sustainable products.

“On the other hand, the study also found that high environmentalists more often perceive greenwashing as sustainable products, therefore in this regard, the present study contradicts the work of Nyilasy et al. [11], Chan [18], and Brouwer [33].”

Perception of greenwashing reduces consumer trust and weakens green purchase intention.

“Several studies highlight that the perception of greenwashing reduces consumer trust in companies and their environmental communications, weakening green purchase intention, as consumers are more likely to buy eco-friendly products from companies they perceive as authentic in their sustainability initiatives (Chen and Chang 2013;Nyilasy et al. 2014;Rahman et al. 2015;Gatti et al. 2019).”

When consumers realize that certain green products present misleading information, a reputation for greenwashing is formed, which compels consumers to be more cautious about these products and increases their predisposition to discovering negative information about other brands in the sector.

“When consumers realize that certain green products present misleading information, a reputation for greenwashing is formed, which compels consumers to be more cautious about these products and increases their predisposition to discovering negative information about other brands in the sector (Chen & Chang, 2013a;Nyilasy et al., 2014;Wang et al., 2019).”