As our latest guest for our Research Seminar Series, we welcomed Eduardo Andrade from Imperial College London. He shared his recent work on consumer perception of sustainability cues in product assessment.
The presentation explored how consumers evaluate the environmental impact of products based on two key physical attributes: size and material.

In the first part of the presentation, Eduardo presented evidence from five studies and several pilot tests examining how consumers weigh size versus material when assessing a product's environmental harm. The findings indicate a dominant focus on material cues over size cues in consumer evaluations. This effect was observed across various product types, presentation formats (visual, physical interaction), and even when size differences were substantial.  

The second part of the presentation delved into potential mechanisms driving this phenomenon, including cue processing and cue diagnosticity. For example, material, being a qualitative and discrete cue, may be processed more quickly and automatically, capturing attention more readily than the quantitative and continuous cue of size. Evidence from an attention-grabbing task supported this, showing material was noticed first. Also, consumers may hold stronger pre-existing beliefs about the environmental impact associated with different materials (e.g., "plastic is bad") compared to beliefs about size ("bigger is worse"). Normative assessments suggested that consumers generally believe material is more important for environmental impact.

Thank you, Eduardo, for your visit and for sharing your work with our community!