From query to conscience : the importance of information retrieval in empowering socially responsible consumerism

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van der Sluis, Frans and Azzopardi, Leif and Meier, Florian; Ferro, Nicola and Maistro, Maria and Pasi, Gabriella and Alonso, Omar and Trotman, Andrew and Verberne, Suzan, eds. (2025) From query to conscience : the importance of information retrieval in empowering socially responsible consumerism. In: SIGIR '25: Proceedings of the 48th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), ITA, pp. 3853-3864. ISBN 9798400715921 (https://doi.org/10.1145/3726302.3730347)

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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.

ORCID iDs

van der Sluis, Frans, Azzopardi, Leif ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6900-0557 and Meier, Florian; Ferro, Nicola, Maistro, Maria, Pasi, Gabriella, Alonso, Omar, Trotman, Andrew and Verberne, Suzan
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)