As environmentally conscious consumers encounter more environmental advertising claims, they grow increasingly skeptical of the claims and their sources. Trust involves judging another’s capacity for action and relying on others; it constitutes a central determinant of people’s engagement in environmental behaviors. When Lee and Holden(1999) examine the motivational determinants of environmental consumer behavior, they note the impact of faith in others (e.g.,
governments, scientists), such that faith or trust in government and scientists increased willingness to pay (up to 10% more for groceries packaged and produced in an environmentally friendly manner). Similarly, Berger and Corbin (1992) investigate how faith or
trust in government influences people’s attitudes toward governmental pro-environmental actions and find a positive relationship as well. On the flip side, Blake (1999) cites a lack of trust as a barrier to pro-environmental behaviors. Given pro-environmental behavior constitutes a social dilemma, Osterhus (1997) argues that trust is a prerequisite for people to cooperate in the face of social dilemmas.Therefore, for consumers to adapt environmental behavior, they
need to trust the relevant institutions. The growth of organic foods in many European countries thus can be attributed to consumers’ trust in governmental and nonprofit labeling schemes. At the individual level, differences with regard to trust and willingness to cooperate to resolve
social dilemmas suggest that more trusting people are more likely to cooperate than are people who score low on trust. With regard to environmental behavior, research shows that people with high trust express higher purchase intentions toward green products. Thus we hypothesize: