Ethan Pancer
Ethan Pancer is first author of a 2017 paper in the Journal of Business Ethics, written with Lindsay McShane and Theodore Noseworthy, on the colour green and eco-labels. Its three experiments found that using a green colour without an eco-label, or an eco-label without green, lowered how effective a product was expected to be.
Who they are
A bibliographic record lists Pancer at Saint Mary's University, McShane at Carleton University and Noseworthy at York University at the time of the paper. Beyond this paper, this page holds no biographical detail, and none is guessed.
Key papers
Pancer, E., McShane, L., & Noseworthy, T. J. (2017). Isolated environmental cues and product efficacy penalties: The color green and eco-labels. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(1), 159-177. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2764-4.
Key ideas
The paper asks how the colour green and eco-labels, the two cues brands use to signal environmental friendliness, affect perceived product efficacy and purchase intention. Its answer for efficacy is that an isolated cue lowers it. The authors attribute the penalty to category ambiguity: a lone cue activates a functional schema and an environmental schema together, and the two compete during evaluation.
The paper is about environmental cues, not health, and the abstract does not name food as the category. Its place in the article on green packaging is as the second meaning of green. A pack that uses green for health may also be read as environmental, and the paper shows that reading can cost credibility in some conditions.
See Category Ambiguity, Colour as a Health Cue and Does Green Packaging Look Healthier.
Sources
- Pancer, E., McShane, L., & Noseworthy, T. J. (2017). Isolated environmental cues and product efficacy penalties: The color green and eco-labels. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(1), 159-177. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2764-4. Abstract level, from a bibliographic record; the full text was not read. Affiliations from the same record.