Communicating or Not Communicating? A Consumer-Based Indicator for Sustainability Communication: Developing a Greenhushing Attitude Scale

Debates around corporate greenwashing increase consumer skepticism toward environmental claims and heighten reputational risks in sustainability communication. Consequently, some corporations strategically limit the visibility of their environmental practices, making it more difficult for stakeholders to interpret sustainability communication. This study develops and validates a multidimensional scale to measure consumer attitudes toward greenhushing. An initial pool of 35 items was refined through evaluation by 12 experts, followed by sequential exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using pilot (n = 94) and main study (n = 401) data. The resulting 16-item, three-dimensional scale comprising greenhushing approval, price-based trust, and greenwashing skepticism was supported by convergent and discriminant validity tests alongside internal consistency measures. Rather than directly measuring sustainability communication performance, the scale offers a stakeholder-level diagnostic indicator of how limited sustainability communication is perceived by consumers, providing a quantitative foundation for empirical research and managerial decision-making.