Green or Greenwashed? Eco-Anxiety and Teen Consumer Choice

Prior research has found that environmental anxiety is becoming prominent among teenagers and can increase their green purchasing intentions. To appeal to growing consumer interest, many companies use greenwashing, a deceptive environmental marketing tactic to appeal to interested consumers but keep their product costs low by avoiding actual eco-friendly production. This tricks worried consumers into believing they are purchasing eco-friendly products when they are not. A survey was conducted to see if there was correlation between how teens analyzed and selected between eco-friendly versus greenwashed product advertisements and their measured eco-anxiety levels. The survey showed low eco-anxiety levels had no association with product selections, medium eco-anxiety levels had notable association with greenwashed selections, and high eco-anxiety levels had notable association with eco-friendly selections. The association between moderate eco-anxiety and greenwashed selections highlights why greenwashing poses an issue to teens who want to make green purchases. However, it is unlikely that the study’s results are highly generalized to a larger population, and the survey should be replicated on a larger scale for better results.