Impact of Information Type and Source on Pollinator-friendly Plant Purchasing

Abstract

<jats:p>The number of pollinators has been reported to be decreasing for the past several decades. Numerous sources (e.g., climate change, pesticides, loss of habitat) have been noted as potential contributing factors to the decline. With respect to the green industry, the impact of pesticides on pollinator decline and consumer response to this impact is of critical importance. Although no definitive link exists of pesticides being a major contributing factor to pollinator decline, some retailers have banned their suppliers from using certain pesticides. As various sources (e.g., universities, media, activist groups) provide information (both positive, neutral, and negative) about the impact of pesticides on pollinators, no information exists regarding how consumers value such information. Using a sample of Connecticut consumers, this study evaluates how both information source and information type impact a consumer’s decision to purchase pollinator-friendly plants in the future. The study finds that consumers exposed to either neutral (no link between pesticides and pollinator decline) or negative (link between pesticides and pollinator decline) information from universities and major media outlets indicate they will purchase more pollinator-friendly plants compared with the no information (control) treatment. The results show that information from the federal government, nursery/greenhouse industry associations, and environmental activist groups have the same impact on self-reported future pollinator-friendly plant purchasing as the no information group.</jats:p>

Effects of pollinator related information on consumer preference for neonicotinoid labeling

“…Echoing Campbell and Steele (2020), we confirmed that both negative and balanced information treatments significantly increased participants' preferences for labels disclosing the absence of neonicotinoids. In line with the GM food labeling preference literature, the negative information treatment was found to have a more substantial impact than the balanced information treatment likely due to negativity bias effects.…”

“…For instance, studies analyzing consumer preferences for pollinator-friendly products (e.g. Campbell and Steele, 2020;Rihn and Khachatryan, 2016;Wei et al, 2020;Wollaeger et al, 2015) are growing in the eco-labeling and production practice related literature (Bougherara and Combris, 2009;Meise et al, 2014;Michaud et al, 2013;Sörqvist et al, 2015;Van Loo et al, 2015). However, none of the previous efforts investigated whether providing issue-specific information (i.e.…”

“…organic labels) was affected not only by the label certification standards for organic labels, but also by the information about conventional production practices. Particularly, the most recent study by Campbell and Steele (2020) investigated the effects of both information source and information type on consumers' decisions to purchase pollinator-friendly plants. They found consumers exposed to either negative or neutral information from universities and major media outlets are more likely to purchase pollinator-friendly plants.…”

“…In this study, we incorporate two (negative and balanced) information treatments to examine how consumers react to additional information and to test how this information may affect the effectiveness of different messages communicating the presence or absence of neonicotinoids. The structure of our information treatments is similar to Campbell and Steele (2020). While Campbell and Steele (2020) provided statements regarding whether there is a link/no link between pesticides and pollinator decline (negative/neutral information treatment) and varying information statements by different source type (e.g.…”

“…The structure of our information treatments is similar to Campbell and Steele (2020). While Campbell and Steele (2020) provided statements regarding whether there is a link/no link between pesticides and pollinator decline (negative/neutral information treatment) and varying information statements by different source type (e.g. environmental group, government, industry), we incorporated multiple sources of information (scientific research results, news broadcasting) with the negative and balanced information videos.…”