Purpose-Washing Detection Among Environmentally Conscious Consumers

Marieke Smit

Purpose-Washing Detection Among Environmentally Conscious Consumers

Author(s)	Dr. Marieke Smit
Country	United States
Abstract	Environmental purpose has become an increasingly visible component of brand positioning, yet the expansion of sustainability-oriented communication also creates opportunities for purpose-washing: the presentation of environmental purpose that is stronger, broader, or more morally ambitious than the organization's substantiated environmental conduct. This study develops a simulation-based framework for examining how environmentally conscious consumers detect such inconsistencies. Three hypothetical communication conditions are compared: symbolic environmental purpose, selectively substantiated purpose, and evidence-aligned environmental purpose. A synthetic analytical sample of 450 observations, equally distributed across the three conditions, is used exclusively for methodological demonstration and does not represent responses obtained from actual consumers. Purpose-washing detection, claim credibility, perceived authenticity, brand trust, and purchase intention are modeled using seven-point scales. The simulated results indicate that symbolic environmental purpose produces the highest purpose-washing detection score at 6.11, compared with 4.83 for selectively substantiated purpose and 2.27 for evidence-aligned purpose. Claim credibility and trust move in the opposite direction. The simulated individual-level relationship between perceived claim–action congruence and purpose-washing detection is strongly negative. These patterns are theoretically consistent with established research showing that discrepancies between environmental communication and corporate performance can damage brand evaluations, although consumers may encounter greater difficulty identifying vague or executional forms of greenwashing than clear factual inconsistencies. The paper argues that environmentally conscious consumers should not be treated as automatically resistant to misleading sustainability communication. Effective detection depends on the availability, specificity, comparability, and verifiability of evidence. The study contributes an action–evidence–claim framework for distinguishing authentic environmental purpose from symbolic sustainability positioning.
Keywords	purpose-washing; environmentally conscious consumers; greenwashing; environmental claims; brand authenticity; consumer skepticism; green trust; sustainability communication
Field	Engineering
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 1, January-February 2025
Published On	2025-01-14

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American Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Innovation and Research

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Purpose-Washing Detection Among Environmentally Conscious Consumers

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