Coping with greenwashed ads. Greenwashing perceptions, eco-label confusion, and the willingness to pay more

With an inflationary use of green claims in marketing, it has become difficult for consumers to distinguish between environmentally friendly companies and those that only pretend to be green. Using survey data of young adults in the UK (n = 465) and Australia (n = 467), we demonstrated that perceived greenwashing in tourism advertising is associated with higher levels of young adults’ eco-label confusion. For both countries, perceived greenwashing was positively associated with the willingness to pay more when environmental norms were high. This suggests that environmental norms help citizens to navigate when facing an abundance of green claims.