From Query to Conscience: The Importance of Information Retrieval in Empowering Socially Responsible Consumerism

2026-04-12

AI Summary

This study addresses the persistent gap between moral consumption intentions and actual behavior, often exacerbated by difficulties in accessing relevant information. It reconceptualizes responsible consumption as an information extraction problem and proposes a tripartite “from query to conscience” framework encompassing three interrelated perspectives: mitigating information asymmetry, optimizing complex search interfaces, and calibrating consumers’ awareness gaps. By integrating principles from information retrieval system design, user interface optimization, and knowledge calibration mechanisms, the work develops a novel retrieval framework that supports ethical decision-making. This framework not only reduces users’ cognitive load but also renders moral choices more accessible, informed, and aligned with real-world economic constraints, thereby offering both a theoretical foundation and a practical technical pathway for advancing responsible consumption.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Conversational Systems for Recommendation & Retrieval
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Accountability, Interpretability & Explainability
• Search and Optimization: Metareasoning and Metaheuristics

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Responsible Web: Consent frameworks and practices on the web
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems

Abstract

Millions of consumers search for products online each day, aiming to find items that meet their needs at an acceptable price. While price and quality are major factors in purchasing decisions, ethical considerations increasingly influence consumer behavior, giving rise to the socially responsible consumer. Insights from a recent survey of over 600 consumers reveal that many barriers to ethical shopping stem from information-seeking challenges, often leading to decisions made under uncertainty. These challenges contribute to the intention-behaviour gap, where consumers' desire to make ethical choices is undermined by limited or inaccessible information and inefficacy of search systems in supporting responsible decision-making. In this perspectives paper, we argue that the field of Information Retrieval (IR) has a critical role to play by empowering consumers to make more informed and more responsible choices. We present three interrelated perspectives: (1) reframing responsible consumption as an information extraction problem aimed at reducing information asymmetries; (2) redefining product search as a complex task requiring interfaces that lower the cost and burden of responsible search; and (3) reimagining search as a process of knowledge calibration that helps consumers bridge gaps in awareness when making purchasing decisions. Taken together, these perspectives outline a path from query to conscience, one where IR systems help transform everyday product searches into opportunities for more ethical and informed choices. We advocate for the development of new and novel IR systems and interfaces that address the intricacies of socially responsible consumerism, and call on the IR community to build technologies that make ethical decisions more informed, convenient, and aligned with economic realities.

Problem

• socially responsible consumerism
• information retrieval
• intention-behaviour gap
• ethical consumption
• information asymmetry

Innovation

• Information Retrieval
• Socially Responsible Consumerism
• Information Asymmetry
• Search Interface Design
• Ethical Decision-Making