A study conducted by the Instituto Superior Miguel Torga (ISMT) in Coimbra has revealed that the majority of Portuguese consumers cease purchasing products from a brand once they discover it is misleading about its sustainable practices.
When consumers realize that a company is engaging in ‘greenwashing’—using campaigns, labels, or claims of environmental behavior that do not reflect reality—they stop buying that brand’s products and look for more ethical alternatives, the ISMT stated in a communication to Lusa.
The brands most identified by respondents as engaging in ‘greenwashing’ include Volkswagen, cited by about 40% of the sample, followed by EDP and Galp.
The findings also highlight a pattern of broken trust, brand rejection, and often a permanent consumer withdrawal.
“People are not just disappointed—they are responding decisively to a type of deception they consider particularly egregious: the misuse of environmental causes for commercial purposes,” stated Célia Santos, ISMT professor and researcher, who coordinated the study in co-authorship with Arnaldo Coelho from the University of Coimbra and Alzira Marques from the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria.
According to Santos, “this is a rational break where consumers feel they have been used and respond by distancing themselves.”
This distancing is “intentional, informed, and persistent,” often marking the end of the consumer-brand relationship.
“The perceived inconsistency between environmental rhetoric and practice is not forgiven,” emphasized Célia Santos.
The research, which conducted a nationwide survey, identified two main mechanisms explaining this distancing: “green confusion” (difficulty in discerning whether a product is truly sustainable or merely marketed as such) and the emergence of extreme negative emotions known as “brand hate.”
“When consumers realize they cannot trust the information provided to them, they enter a state of alert. They become more suspicious, feel frustrated, and lose a sense of control over their purchasing decisions,” she explained.
In this context, the reaction is to pursue ethical consumption, where the client “tries to regain control by choosing brands they consider more transparent, even if it means changing habits or paying more.”
“The negative emotions generated, such as outrage or disdain, do not disappear with a new campaign or brand repositioning. On the contrary, they often consolidate as forms of enduring rejection,” observed the researcher.
