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Promoting sustainability in a college café by opposite-sex cashiers

Sigal Tifferet (Department of Business Administration, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel)
Niv Rosenblit (Department of Business Administration, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel)
Maya Shalev (Department of Business Administration, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel)

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education

ISSN: 1467-6370

Article publication date: 6 November 2017

516

Abstract

Purpose

People engage in green consumption for many reasons, both conscious and unconscious. This paper aims to draw on evolutionary psychology to propose that hard-wired mating strategies encourage both men and women to increase their green consumption in the presence of members of the opposite sex.

Design/methodology/approach

Observations were conducted on 324 students who purchased cold drinks in disposable cups from a college café. The students were offered the choice of adding 20 cents to their purchase for a bio-degradable cup.

Findings

Overall, 160 students agreed to pay the premium for a bio-degradable cup, with green purchases 46 per cent higher among women and 61 per cent higher among men when facing a cashier of the opposite sex.

Originality/value

The findings suggest that the activation of mating cues prompts students to display prosocial, altruistic behavior and/or to engage in conspicuous consumption (i.e. agreeing to pay more for the sustainable product). The study was conducted in the field using naïve participants and demonstrates the application of evolutionary psychology to green marketing. It also adds to what is a surprisingly small literature on the effect of employee–customer gender mismatch.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Iris Vilnai-Yavetz and Efrat Neter for their helpful comments. They are also grateful for the financial support of the Ruppin Academic Center.

Citation

Tifferet, S., Rosenblit, N. and Shalev, M. (2017), "Promoting sustainability in a college café by opposite-sex cashiers", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 18 No. 7, pp. 1279-1290. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-01-2016-0013

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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