The Buzz Bin

So, in the latest turn of events in the pell-mell race to “sustainable” and “green” and “post-consumer” products, we hear  from researchers that green people are mean people? C’mon!? The Guardian pulls this one out from the journal Psychological Science, quoting psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo-Zhong, who say that those who wear their green consumerism on their sleeves are likely to have something up their sleeves!

Do Green Products Make Us Better People? is in the current issue of the journal, and is based on a game and some other approaches that probably intrigue psychologists, but puzzle the rest of us. Bottom line: They say that you/we who are green are not as interested in sharing with others and will cheat on the game and lie about it afterward. In a variation on the found-money-on-the-street Candid Camera/wallettest.com bit, the team also let conventional consumers and green consumers decide to pay themselves from an envelope.  The greens? Six times more likely to “steal” than the conventionals!

A fellow psychologist commented in the post:  ”At the moment in which you have proven your credentials in a particular area, you tend to allow yourself to stray elsewhere,” he said. (John Edwards, Tiger Woods, David Letterman, anyone?)

Just what are all of our ” social” networks doing to shape good behaviors?  There are endless examples of their impact on voting, health, and even happiness, as we’ve blogged about on these pages before. I’m hoping that other research will take hold here, with the help of good communicators, and bring these errant greens back to society’s fold.  University of Pennsylvania’s Michael Kearns believes a small minority can win over the majority, so why not believe the majority can affect the minority in this case? Kearns’ work seems to support the concept of “influentials” at work in our business, and the idea that extended networks can spread influence. The article quote: ” ‘Influential’ people can determine the outcome to their liking.” (lots of connections made a subject influential)

Can we continue to use social media to shape the discussions so that we don’t suffer the abuse of the green elite (think, Al Gore’s planes)? Or, for that matter, can the effective use of influence shape the sustainable or green landscape farther and faster so that behaviors are more uniformly noble and aligned with the ethics of doing right not only by the environment, but our fellow men and women?

An ongoing experiment by Dominion Virginia Power to attract consumers to buy into more renewable energy sources is proving that at least some greens are willing to put money in instead of taking it out. Over 6,000 customers have joined the Green Power program to purchase certificates from the power company to assure some portion of the bill is generated by renewable sources.

Network for Good, Zoetica and many others are making a dent in this goodness part, and if Dominion is making a dent in the sustainable part, I’m confident there is a way for these ends of the economic spectrum to meet and create even greater good for the environment. Maybe we haven’t hit the tipping point in our efforts to move toward sustainable behaviors, but the continued building of our networks to address sustainability as well as all-around goodness will go a long way to making our planet a better place.