Johnson, Emma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8990-9621 (2024) Uncovering the Truth Behind Ethical Consumerism in the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Industry. In: York Business School PGR Event, 24 April 2024, York St John University. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Wang, Shao and Song (2020) states that consumers that take into account the fundamental rights of animals and promotes well-being of all concerned, relates to the utilitarian theory. As living individuals, animals should have freedom and should not have to suffer at the cost of experiments.

The UK beauty and personal care industry is projected to reach £12.96bn in 2024 (Statista, 2024a), and is the eigth-largest cosmetics market, with the USA and China taking the two top positions (Statista, 2024b). British women spend on average £400 annually on cosmetics (Read, 2020), the highest in Europe (Statista, 2020). The interest in ethical consumerism has increased, as consumers are becoming more aware of their role and potential effect of changing the products they buy (Gillani and Kutaula, 2018).

Many brands had adopted cruelty-free products, to meet the demands on consumers (Chitrakorn, 2016; Cruelty Free International, 2020). There remains scope to understand the emotions of consumers, when this issue of cruelty-free is raised. Thus, the underlying aims of this study are to examine emotions towards cruelty free products, increasing awareness and acceptability of cruelty-free products within society, and to examine views that have contributed towards ethical consumerism amongst some people and groups.

Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with female participants, as British women spend £1.36bn in 2023 on facial skincare (Capecchi, 2018). The open-ended questions will permit participants to discuss their feelings, emotions, experiences, and suggestions on the surrounding topics. Aiming to provide an in-depth insight into this particular topic in ethical consumerism.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Status:	Submitted
Subjects:	A General Works > AS Academies and learned societies (General)
School/Department:	York Business School
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/14824

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