Greenwashing with green: Product packaging color and perception of environmental sustainability

Greenwashing refers to any communication that misleads people into adopting overly positive beliefs about an organization's environmental performance. The aim of this study is to examine whether the use of green color in product packaging affects consumers' perception of a brand's environmental sustainability. A convenience sample of 34 respondents was recruited from a university in Singapore. The mean age of the respondents was 22.9 years with 25 (74%) of the respondents of female gender. The respondents were provided with three brands each from four different household products. The brands were identical except that the color of the packaging was manipulated with one of the three brands packaged in green color. The results show that respondents were more likely to select the product with green packaging as environmentally sustainable. Fisher's Exact Test indicated that the proportion of respondents who selected the images with green packaging as more environmentally sustainable did not differ among those who were more eco-literate, familiar with the product category and involved in purchasing sustainable products. This suggests that by changing the color of the packaging, even informed consumers can be influenced into perceiving that the brands are environmentally sustainable.