Explicit and Implicit Determinants of Fair-Trade Buying Behavior

We examined the usefulness of an implicit attitude measure (IAT) to explain the weak attitude-behavior relationships often found in research about ethical consumer behavior. The results indicated that the IAT effects for buyers and nonbuyers of Fair Trade products were significantly different, showing that the IAT can be used to differentiate between buyers and non-buyers. Further, the authors conclude that the IAT has unique predictive validity and that most importantly implicit attitudes need to be enhanced to raise ethical consumer behavior.