Protest and Brand Avoidance Reactions to Greenwashing According to Consumer Profile: A Survey in Brazil

This study aimed to understand protest and brand avoidance as reactions to greenwashing by investigating differences in consumer profiles. A survey was conducted with 1,236 Brazilian consumers, followed by a general descriptive analysis and a parametric analysis of variance. We observed conscious consumption behavior at the intermediate point, but with high levels of protest and brand avoidance attributions. We identified differences across all consumer profile variables. Female, older and higher-income consumers showed to have greater conscious consumption behavior. Furthermore, consumers with higher conscious consumption behavior, female and higher-income returned higher attributions of both protest and brand avoidance reactions to greenwashing.