Holding an entity mind-set deters consumption of recycled content products: the role of perceived product quality

With increased awareness of environmental concerns, companies across industries have begun using recycled materials to manufacture their products. Evidence shows, however, that not all consumers react positively to companies’ efforts to produce recycled content products. To understand that phenomenon, current research focuses on how consumers’ implicit theories (i.e., entity vs. incremental theories) affect their reactions to such products. Because recycled materials are made from waste, entity theorists, who believe that traits are immutable, are expected to be more likely than incremental theorists, who believe that traits are flexible, to perceive that recycled materials cannot have the same quality as non-recycled materials and thus react more negatively to recycled content products. Three experiments provided evidence that holding an entity (vs. incremental) theory of personal traits deters the consumption of recycled content products, in a relationship mediated by differences in the perceived quality of such products.