Clerk agent promotes consumers' ethical purchasing behavior in unmanned purchase environment

Authors:
Atsushi Kimura;Naoki Mukawa;Masahide Yuasa;Mana Yamamoto;Takashi Oka;Tomohiro Masuda;Yuji Wada
Affiliations:
Tokyo Denki University, Inzai, Chiba, Japan;Tokyo Denki University, Inzai, Chiba, Japan;Tokyo Denki University, Inzai, Chiba, Japan;Nihon University, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan;Nihon University, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan;National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan;National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Venue:
CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Year:
2012

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Abstract

This study explored whether cues from others in a purchase environment have an effect on purchase behavior for products with fair-trade labels, an ethical attribute of products, among Japanese consumers. By manipulating cues from others, we assessed consumers' intentions to purchase fair-trade products under three different experimental situations: 1) the observed condition, in which participants' purchasing behaviors were observed by others (N = 84), 2) the agent condition, in which participants' purchasing behaviors were observed by a clerk-like agent (N = 118), and 3) the non-observed condition, in which participants' purchasing behaviors could not be observed by others (N = 106). The results of this conjoint experiment demonstrate that participants under both the agent and observed conditions valuated fair-trade products higher than those under the non-observed condition, although participants both in the agent and the non-observed conditions were instructed that their responses would remain anonymous. These findings imply that implications of the presence of others, such as a clerk-like agent in an unmanned purchase environment, enhance ethical purchasing behaviors as with manned purchase environments.