Washing away their concious - What motivates people to look behind the facade of humane-, health-, or greenwashed products?

Don’t fall for their lies!

Well, it is not per se lies, but companies often mislead consumers by making their products appear e.g. more animal friendly, environmentally friendly or healthy, when in fact they are not (de Freitas Netto et al., 2020; Stucki, 2017). This is what we call washing, in the context of deceptive marketing. For example, a milk carton which displays a mother cow together with her child, whereas the vast majority of dairy calves are separated from their mother after birth.

As washing techniques are an easy shortcut for companies to appear more attractive and increase or retain revenue, we must approach this problem from the consumer’s side and empower them to make better purchasing decisions. But for this, people must be motivated to detect washing in the first place.

In this project, you will explore what motivates people to detect washing by conducting a qualitative study using interviews.

The exact study design and topic can be discussed and adjusted to your own interests.

Washing, greenwashing, misleading marketing, consumers

The exact research questions will be determined based on student interests after discussion. Potential research question:

What motivates people to detect washing as a deceptive marketing technique in supermarket products?

Online or in-person interviews. Qualitative, but can be quantitative if student wants to explore something similar through a quantitative lens.

The qualitative data of this study will be coded with Atlas.ti and if applicable analysed with a quantitative data analysis programme such as R or SPSS.

Please contact Marleen Haandrikman (m.j.m.haandrikman@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to 2 students. 

• Chaudhary, V., Sharma, D., Nagpal, A., & Kalro, A. D. (2024). The role of health-related claims and situational skepticism on consumers’ food choices. European Journal of Marketing, 58(6), 1600–1629. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-08-2022-0621
• de Freitas Netto, S. V., Sobral, M. F. F., Ribeiro, A. R. B., & Soares, G. R. da L. (2020). Concepts and forms of greenwashing: A systematic review. Environmental Sciences Europe, 32(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020-0300-3
• de Jong, M. D. T., Huluba, G., & Beldad, A. D. (2020). Different Shades of Greenwashing: Consumers’ Reactions to Environmental Lies, Half-Lies, and Organizations Taking Credit for Following Legal Obligations. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 34(1), 38–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651919874105
• Stucki, S. (2017). (Certified) Humane Violence? Animal Welfare Labels, the Ambivalence of Humanizing the Inhumane, and What International Humanitarian Law Has to Do with It. AJIL Unbound, 111, 277–281. https://doi.org/10.1017/aju.2017.65
• Vyas, A., Kushwaha, G. singh, & Sreenu, N. (2025). Eco-Friendly or Eco-Fraud? The role of green washing in consumer behavior. SN Business & Economics, 5(11), 178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-025-00951-3