Investigating pro-environmental policy effectiveness from a consumer perspective

Purpose This study aims to examine the consumers’ perceived policy effectiveness to advance understanding of how environmental policies are evaluated across policy attributes, levels of attributes and contexts from a consumer perspective. Design/methodology/approach Three choice-based conjoint experiments were conducted to assess consumers’ perceived policy effectiveness for environmental policies varying in policy attributes (informational, economic and regulatory), levels of attributes (facilitating, constraining or absent) and contexts (plant-based food, electric vehicles and sustainably sourced clothing). Data were collected from student and general population samples. Conditional multinomial logit (cMNL) models were used to estimate the effects of policy attributes and attribute levels on choices of the most effective policy. Findings This research shows that consumers consistently perceive facilitating policies as more effective than constraining policies across different policy attributes (informational, economic and regulatory) and contexts (plant-based food, electric vehicles and sustainably sourced clothing). Findings highlight a fundamental misalignment between consumer-perceived and empirically assessed policy effectiveness. Research limitations/implications This study draws on Australian samples, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other cultural and institutional contexts. Future studies should examine whether this study’s findings can be extended to other cultural settings or conduct comparative research across countries with different cultural values. Practical implications The research advises policymakers and social marketers to avoid equating policy preference with perceived policy effectiveness. The findings help policymakers in identifying which policies are likely to face public resistance and where policy design or communication may be needed to better align public perceptions with empirical effectiveness. Originality/value The findings contribute to the policy and consumer behavior literature by establishing perceived policy effectiveness as a distinct construct worthy of investigation in its own right and by demonstrating that it is jointly shaped by policy attributes, levels of those attributes and contexts.