The Trade-off Between Efficiency and Ethicality: Do Cosmetics Consumers Really Care About Sustainability

Abstract: During the past centuries, environmental degradation and climate change have become two of the world's most pressing issues. In order to sustain the environment for future generations, conscious choices and ethical consumerism have emerged as an active area of practice and research. Nevertheless, in spite of increasingly positive attitudes towards ethical products, people do not necessarily purchase ethically. Drawing on existing literature in the field, it is evident that there exists an attitude-behavior gap. This thesis aims to shed light on the discrepancy between self-reported actions and attitudes within cosmetics and to contribute to existing research in the field. More specifically, to generate knowledge on whether consumers are willing to trade-off conventional attributes for sustainability. A web-based questionnaire was distributed to collect representative data on Swedish undergraduate students' self- reported attitudes on ethical aspects in cosmetics and potential trade-offs between attributes. The results reveal that sustainability is of less significance compared to other attributes for cosmetics purchases. Hence, the results confirm that consumers are willing to trade-off sustainability for other factors.