Summarizing a March 2010 study, “Do Green Products Make Us Better People,” by Psychological Science, the August 2010 issue of Popular Science writes:
It turns out that just being exposed to green products-seeing a TV commercial or walking by an organic store-creates a “halo effect” that makes people more charitable and trusting. But actually buying green products was like ghetting a license for hypocrisy: After a purchase, the green consumers were more likely to lie and steal.
First, a practical tip: if you ever find yourself talking to people on the street, hang out near an organic store, but don’t bother talking to the people who actually shop there.
Perhaps the reason for the connection between buying green products and immorality is the exaltation of treating the environment as holier than humans. Ie, doing a good for the planet outweighs doing a good for a person. This way a person feels they stockpile righteousness to cover their sins against other people.
This certainly is the pattern. Evironmentalism is often linked to immorality toward people. Due to a junk-science film wrongly saying DDT could be bad for the environment, we’ve outlawed DDT and in effect killed millions of people whose lives would have been saved.
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