(3) Is there any correlation between consumers’ ecological awareness and their
response?
(4) What kind of neurological response (in terms of activated brain regions and
response time) follows the exposure to environmental information?
(5) Are the selected ecolabels convincing enough for consumers to persuade them
to select the eco-labelled products?
3 Project Procedure and Methodology
The project consists of three parts intended to be performed independently: a survey, monitoring of purchasing behaviour (in a shopLAB) and monitoring of psychophysiological reactions (in an EEG laboratory). A description of the parts in
terms of placing, tools, key elements and their relationship with the project goals
(questions to be answered) is presented in Table 1. A first part—the survey—is
aimed at identifying the types of participants involved, in terms of their environmental awareness and tendency to practice the principles of sustainable development in daily life. This survey is assumed to play a supplementary role for the
whole project. The methodology and the consumer typology assessment tool have
been described in [21]. The main purpose of the survey is to analyse the relationship
between consumer types (Voluntary Simplifiers, Beginner Voluntary Simplifiers,
Accidental Simplifiers, Non-Voluntary Simplifiers) [21, 22] and their reaction to
environmental labels and environmentally labelled products. Attensee Software
[23] is intended to be used to verify the visual attention of the surveyed participants.
The international scope of the survey provides a chance to compare results obtained
in different countries from the perspective of cultural and international differences.
The same consumer assessment tool is intended to be used in the EEG laboratory.
However, in this case, only Polish respondents will be involved and the focus is on
finding a relationship between consumer types and their reaction which will be
measured by electroencephalograph (EEG) and the eye-tracker. More detailed
information regarding the research in EEG lab can be found in a Sect. 4.
Another part of the project is to analyse consumer behaviour in a shopping
environment. This task is performed in a shopLAB—a laboratory where real
shopping conditions are reflected. The research procedure is as follows: the products with and without environmental labels are placed on the shelves and the
participants—equipped with an eyetracker—make decisions about selecting products. The participants are divided into three groups. All of them are provided with
the same shopping list on which the products to buy are listed. The members of the
first group are fully free in their decision making (the only condition is to follow the
shopping list). The second group is recommended to buy only green products. They
make decisions based only on their current knowledge and experience, without any
prior training. The members of the third group take, before shopping, a short course
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response?
(4) What kind of neurological response (in terms of activated brain regions and
response time) follows the exposure to environmental information?
(5) Are the selected ecolabels convincing enough for consumers to persuade them
to select the eco-labelled products?
3 Project Procedure and Methodology
The project consists of three parts intended to be performed independently: a survey, monitoring of purchasing behaviour (in a shopLAB) and monitoring of psychophysiological reactions (in an EEG laboratory). A description of the parts in
terms of placing, tools, key elements and their relationship with the project goals
(questions to be answered) is presented in Table 1. A first part—the survey—is
aimed at identifying the types of participants involved, in terms of their environmental awareness and tendency to practice the principles of sustainable development in daily life. This survey is assumed to play a supplementary role for the
whole project. The methodology and the consumer typology assessment tool have
been described in [21]. The main purpose of the survey is to analyse the relationship
between consumer types (Voluntary Simplifiers, Beginner Voluntary Simplifiers,
Accidental Simplifiers, Non-Voluntary Simplifiers) [21, 22] and their reaction to
environmental labels and environmentally labelled products. Attensee Software
[23] is intended to be used to verify the visual attention of the surveyed participants.
The international scope of the survey provides a chance to compare results obtained
in different countries from the perspective of cultural and international differences.
The same consumer assessment tool is intended to be used in the EEG laboratory.
However, in this case, only Polish respondents will be involved and the focus is on
finding a relationship between consumer types and their reaction which will be
measured by electroencephalograph (EEG) and the eye-tracker. More detailed
information regarding the research in EEG lab can be found in a Sect. 4.
Another part of the project is to analyse consumer behaviour in a shopping
environment. This task is performed in a shopLAB—a laboratory where real
shopping conditions are reflected. The research procedure is as follows: the products with and without environmental labels are placed on the shelves and the
participants—equipped with an eyetracker—make decisions about selecting products. The participants are divided into three groups. All of them are provided with
the same shopping list on which the products to buy are listed. The members of the
first group are fully free in their decision making (the only condition is to follow the
shopping list). The second group is recommended to buy only green products. They
make decisions based only on their current knowledge and experience, without any
prior training. The members of the third group take, before shopping, a short course
166
A. Lewandowska et al.