Researchers gave participants the exact same wine in a taste test. The only difference? Some were told the winery donated to charity, while others had no idea. Keep reading to find out which wine was rated higher—and why. 🍷
Read time: 3.2 minutes ⚡
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Imagine this… You've got two moisturizer samples sitting on your bathroom counter. Both promise "deep hydration" and "radiant skin." You slather one sample on the left side of your face, the other on the right. An hour later, you look in the mirror. "Eh, I can't tell one from the other," you say to yourself, squinting your eyes to see if one side looks more moisturized. So you grab your laptop and start investigating both products before investing in a full-size version. The first brand's website shows standard ingredient lists, customer reviews, and the usual "clean beauty" messaging. Y'know—the standard stuff. The second brand's homepage highlights their partnership with charity: every purchase helps provide clean water access to families in need.
You scroll through their Our Story page and discover that your potential $65 moisturizer could help fund clean water for an entire family for two months. You head back to the mirror and give your face one final look. Not only does the side of the charity-supporting brand look more moisturized, but it also feels noticeably more hydrating and gentle on your skin. Before you know it, you're reaching for your phone to order the full size. Why did learning about the company's charitable work make the moisturizer suddenly feel more effective? In today's edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we'll explore the Noble Edge Effect—why we like brands more after learning they do good. Let's get into it.
🧠 The Psychology of Noble Edge Effect
Researchers at Northwestern ran a simple wine-tasting test where participants were given the same wine. Here's the catch: Some learned that the winery donated 10% of sales to the American Heart Association. The others heard nothing about donations. The result? The exact same wine got higher taste ratings when participants knew about the donations.
When you learn a company donates money or helps people, your brain assumes the products themselves must be better quality. So the wine tastes smoother, the shoes feel more comfortable, and the coffee seems richer. Why? Your brain links generosity with trustworthiness. That is, if someone's generous, they're probably reliable in other ways, too. So when a company does something good, your brain applies that goodness to everything else they make. This means doing good doesn't just boost your brand's reputation. It changes how customers experience what you sell. They'll swear your product performs better than competitors. And they're not lying. That's what they're actually tasting, feeling, and experiencing.
🤑 How To Apply This
Alright, so how can you apply this right now to sell more?
Ads Use radical transparency to boost trust Patagonia has committed 1% of sales to environmental causes. But in 2011, they ran a Black Friday ad in the New York Times with an attention-grabbing headline: "Don't Buy This Jacket" The ad revealed how much it really costs to make their best-selling R2 jacket, including 135 liters of water per jacket, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, and waste equal to two-thirds of the jacket's weight.
The takeaway? Only buy what you need. The result? Sales jumped 30% the next year, from $415 million to $543 million. When customers see a company doing genuine good paired with honest admission of where they fall short, they trust that company (and the quality of their products) more than competitors making vague "green" claims.
Service providers Build charitable impact into your pricing structure Don't be another option for a client to price shop. On top of having killer messaging, brands can give clients a unique reason to choose them, like donating 10% of the retainer fee to the client's chosen charity.
Clients are more likely to associate the moral goodness of charitable giving with the brand's service quality, making the premium price feel justified and even desirable rather than expensive. The result? Higher pricing with stronger client retention.
Consumer goods Make your product the vehicle for your mission Ben & Jerry's doesn't treat activism like a side project. They name flavors after causes, hire staff devoted to activism, and write mission protection into their legal board structure.
When customers know about Ben & Jerry's activism, they buy more than ice cream—they buy into causes they care about. Which makes the product literally taste better. The sweet result? Their internal research found mission-aware customers are 30% more likely to consider Ben & Jerry's as their favorite brand.
💥 The Short of It
When customers learn your brand does good, they experience your products as better quality. This is because their brains connect moral goodness with trustworthiness—and product superiority. Meanwhile, you can charge more premium prices, build stronger loyalty, and enjoy word-of-mouth marketing that money can't buy. Until next time, happy selling!
P.S. Wanna know how big-brained experts like Steve Jobs and Codie Sanchez built unignorable personal brands? Don't miss my (Katelyn here 👋) brand new newsletter: Unignorable. Subscribe for $0 now >
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