Consumers' decision-making process when choosing potentially risky, frequently used chemical household products: The case of laundry detergents.

Kim Buchmüller, Chengyan Xu, Angela Bearth, Michael Siegrist

Environmental research 2022 Jun

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Chemical household products are a common cause of accidents in the domestic sphere. Despite such products being associated with certain risks in the event of swallowing or contact with the skin or eyes, they are used in nearly every household worldwide for hygiene purposes. In most European countries, chemical household products feature warnings of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) as well as other warnings. In this eye-tracking study (N = 147), which was conducted in a virtual environment, we examined (i) whether consumers use such warnings when choosing a laundry detergent, (ii) whether they consider information irrelevant to risk assessment and (iii) whether they make use of this information for their final product choice. For this, the participants were split randomly into three experimental groups (a risk priming group, an effectiveness priming group, and a control group) that each received different tasks while purchasing a laundry detergent. The results indicate that the warnings found on laundry detergents are effective when they are used, although the majority of consumers do not look at the warnings. Therefore, we suggest that the alternative placement of warnings or the use of simplified warnings should be considered to improve consumers' awareness of potential risks. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Kim Buchmüller, Chengyan Xu, Angela Bearth, Michael Siegrist. Consumers' decision-making process when choosing potentially risky, frequently used chemical household products: The case of laundry detergents. Environmental research. 2022 Jun;209:112894