Abstract
Social norms are important social factors that affect individual behavioral change. Using social norms to promote green consumption is receiving increasing attention. However, due to the different formation processes and mechanisms of the behavioral influence of the different types of social norms, using social norms to promote green consumption often has social norm conflict situations (injunctive norms + negative descriptive norms). Thus, it is difficult to attain the maximum utility of social norms. The present research found that social norm conflict weakens the role of injunctive norms in promoting green consumption. Specifically, negative descriptive norms weaken the role of injunctive norms in promoting green consumption. Alienation, which manifests through powerlessness and meaninglessness, plays a mediating role in the relationship between social norm conflict and green consumption. Self-affirmation moderates the mediating role of alienation between social norm conflicts and green consumption. Self-affirmation reduces the alienation caused by social norm conflict, thereby alleviating the weakening effect of social norm conflict on green consumption.
Highlights
Green consumption, known as sustainable consumption, refers to consumption behavior wherein consumers consider the environmental impact when buying, using, or disposing products to minimize environmental harm (Carlson et al, 1993; Roozen and De Pelsmacker, 2000; Wang et al, 2019)
Experiment 3 verified the moderating effect of self-affirmation on the mediating effect of alienation, to verify that the mediating relationship between powerlessness and meaninglessness in social norm conflict and green consumption is regulated by self-affirmation, namely, to verify hypothesis H3a and hypothesis H3b
Most studies show that manipulating self-affirmation at the beginning of the experiment or after the subject is exposed to self-threat information will effectively reduce the defensive processing of the subject to self-threat information, but the premise is that it is effective only when the participant has no chance to react defensively after facing self-threatening information
Summary
Known as sustainable consumption, refers to consumption behavior wherein consumers consider the environmental impact when buying, using, or disposing products to minimize environmental harm (Carlson et al, 1993; Roozen and De Pelsmacker, 2000; Wang et al, 2019). Environmental degradation is largely caused by residents’ unreasonable consumption habits and consumption patterns, and green consumption is crucial in solving environmental problems (Smith et al, 2012; Sheng et al, 2019). The environmental benefits generated by green consumption are individually enjoyed by consumers and shared by the whole society. The generation of green consumption behavior requires consumers to balance their interests with social interests (Olson, 2013).
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