How Consumers Mobilize Ethical Myths to Animate Moral Identity: A study on consumers’ moral action within ethical fashion

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the ethical fashion gap between moral thought and moral action. By doing so, it illustrates how consumers mobilize ethical myths to animate their moral identity. Previous research has focused on both moral identity and ethical myths, however, it has not been explored how ethical myths actually animate moral identity. The analysis and findings are based on a narrative design conducted on phenomenological interviews, on consumers of an ethical brand. Findings show the importance of ethical myths in the construction of one’s moral identity and illustrate the conflict in moral thought and moral action. This can be used to understand how brands can mobilize myths to increase consumers’ moral identity.