If you're green, are you more likely to be mean? A new study suggests you are...

If you're like us, you've probably heard the Toyota Prius referred to as the "Pious." The joke, we think, is that Prius owners feel holier than thou because they drive a hybrid. But it's just a joke made by people who wish they could achieve 50 miles per gallon around town, right? If you ask Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, you may get an answer that sounds a lot like 'environmentally conscious types are liars, cheats, thieves and just plain mean,' and they're not even talking about hybrid-driving politicians.

The Detroit Bureau reports that a Mazar and Zhong study in published in Psychological Science focused on the social behaviors of green consumers, and the results were pretty damn surprising. The psychologists set up tests to gauge the behavior of environmentally conscious types against consumers who are less likely to consider environmental impact during the purchase process.

In one study, both groups of university students (90 students) were asked to identify which side of a computer screen had more dots. If you chose the left side, you received .5 cents for your efforts. If you chose the right side, you received five cents. The result? The green types chose the right side 51.4 percent of the time, while the non-green consumers chose the right side 42.5 percent of the time, far closer to the actual answer of 40 percent right.

Another test of both types of consumers involved money in an envelope that was to be used for purchases. The test subjects were told that they were to pay themselves for purchases and share the rest with another test subject that didn't actually exist. In the end, green store shoppers shared, on average, $1.76, while conventional shoppers shared $2.18. So what's 42 cents between friends? The psychologists say that the difference shows "acting upon one's values establishes moral credentials that can subsequently license deviating behavior." We're not sure, but we think that means the green shoppers felt they were holier than thou. Click here to read the entire study in Psychological Science.

[Source: The Detroit Bureau Psychological Science]