We are investigating how consumers perceive, respond to, and use information about their consumption and impacts. Our focus is currently on seafood, food, chemicals, and electronics. In particular, we are interested in information regarding the environmental, health, and social attributes of products and companies. We are working on an inventory of the information that is already available and identifying what new kinds of information need to be provided.

People may vary greatly in their preferences regarding what and how much information they want, the formats that the information is in, and when they are most likely to use the information. What information actually matters and is useful to different stakeholder groups? To consumers, investors, employees, activists, and “experts?” To different sectors of society, from industry to government to civil society? How do beliefs and experiences affect these groups’ desires for different types of information?

Different consumer segments and interests may respond differently to different formats and delivery approaches. For instance, some may prefer text in magazines and newspapers, while others favor more visual, electronically delivered formats. We are researching what technologies have been used to deliver social, environmental and health information to the public and what factors have influenced their effectiveness.

People may also diverge in how they process and use information in their consuming decisions. We are very interested in developing theories and research methods that shed light on the impacts of information on people’s shopping behavior and demands for changes in products. How can purchasing decisions and consumer activism feed back into corporate behavior and production decisions? We are studying new types of interactions between consumers and companies that can send powerful signals back to companies about consumer demand for responsibly-produced products.