From Daily Caller:
The research concludes that when people purchase an electric car or install rooftop solar, that decision is often heavily motivated by a desire to appear trendy and fashionable to their peers, which researchers dub as “conspicuous conservation.” Economists previously calculated that car dealerships and manufacturers can charge an extra $7,000 for a Prius, a hybrid car, because of social status bonuses. That’s quite a bit considering the hybrid car starts at $24,200.
“Every era produces hucksters trying to sell snake oil,” Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute who did not take part in the study, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “But the particular type of flimflam being peddled varies from era to era. For ours, it’s labeling products green and environmentally sustainable.” More.
Psych research of this type is generally worth what one pays for it (nothing unless you sponsored the research in order to influence public policy; then, if it is believed, it can pay big).
That said, there are only so many lectures most folk can stand from upper crust: Two-car families blathering about how all the rest of us should all save the environment by following the hundred-mile diet or vegan living or something.
Sure, it’s a fun fad for the upper crust; they could afford a winter home in Fruitopia if they really wanted one. The rest of the city… in the dead of winter, where inanimate nature allows life forms to know that it always wins in the end… ?
See also: Creation Museum inspires rage; Whole Foods scams don’t
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