Date: 14 October 2026, Wednesday
Time: 10.30 – 11.30
Place: MA-330
“How Political Ideology Shapes Prosocial Consumer Behavior Research”
By
Kate White
University of British Columbia
Abstract
This research suggests that there is a lack of political diversity in the stimuli used in prosocial consumer behavior research, which may pose challenges for the reliability and generalizability of such work. We review prosocial consumer behavior research from leading marketing journals over a twenty-year time period and show that the stimuli used exhibit a concentration of causes more commonly associated with liberal values, potentially leading to an imbalance in the ideological diversity of stimuli used in the literature. In a survey of contemporary prosocial consumer behavior researchers, we provide evidence consistent with the possibility that researchers’ political beliefs, disciplinary norms, and comfort with ideologically incongruent causes may partially contribute to this observed pattern. We then experimentally demonstrate that the unacknowledged political leaning of prosocial stimuli, along with unmeasured political beliefs of participants, has the potential to impact estimates and theoretical interpretations if not appropriately accounted for, and that this has implications for researchers’ sample size planning decisions. This work contributes to the literature on prosocial consumer behavior by documenting a systematic asymmetry in stimuli selection and showing that, when politically homogeneous stimuli are paired with individual differences correlated with political ideology, researchers may risk drawing conclusions that are more context-dependent than previously recognized unless participants’ political orientation and the political valence of the stimuli are considered.
Bio
Dr. Kate White is Senior Associate Dean, Strategy and Responsible Business and Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Kate studies the psychology of behaviour change, and is particularly interested in encouraging behaviours related to sustainability, charitable giving, and health behaviours.
Kate is the author of “The Elusive Green Consumer” in Harvard Business Review and she has published over 60 research articles. Kate was recognized as one of the top five marketing researchers in the world by the American Marketing Association and has been inducted into the College of Arts and Sciences, Royal Society of Canada. She also received the Canada Clean 50 Award for thought leadership in sustainability, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Influential Leaders Award, and the American Marketing Association’s Award for Responsible Research in Marketing. Kate currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing. Kate has collaborated on various behaviour change projects on topics including sustainable actions, investment behaviours, and charitable giving with organizations such as Lululemon, Vancity, Starbucks, the Better Business Bureau National Programs, Unilever, Proctor and Gamble, The City of Calgary, The United Way, MakeWay, and the SPCA.