Essays on ethics and identity in consumer behavior

This dissertation uses experimental methods to explore ethical and identity based biases that impact consumer decisions. In the first essay I explore how an effect of indirectness impacts how participants make ethical judgements toward companies as well as their own behaviors. In the second essay, I explore how identity mechanisms drive an "underdog effect" where participants show more favorable evaluations of products which have underdog brand biographies. In the third essay I explore how consumers are more likely to morally disengage when considering a product made with sweatshop labor. I show that consumers are much more likely to justify the use of sweatshop labor when desire for a product is high, or the product is in a self-relavant context.