Noble Edge Effect

What is the noble edge effect?

“Noble edge effect” is a popular label for a favorable spillover from a company’s perceived social responsibility to evaluations of its products. The idea is that a good deed can change how customers judge something else the company does.

Chernev and Blair (2015) studied a benevolent halo of corporate social responsibility. Prosocial activity could improve perceived product performance, including when participants experienced the product. The effect weakened when people attributed the company’s conduct to self-interest.

Perceived performance is different from objective quality, actual ethical conduct, or sales. A charity claim will not necessarily produce that response, especially if customers see it as self-serving.

Example: the same wine, different information

In the first experiment reported by Chernev and Blair, 56 executive-education participants tasted red wine from unmarked cups. Everyone received the same winery description, but one group also read that the winery donated 10% of sales revenue to the American Heart Association. Participants then rated the wine’s taste.

Those given the donation information rated the same wine more favorably. The difference was more pronounced among people reporting less wine expertise. The wine itself did not change: company information influenced the tasting judgment. This is the benevolent halo the study tested, rather than evidence that charitable giving improves a product’s physical quality.