The impact of emotions on the intention of sustainable consumption choices: evidence from a big city in an emerging country

Abstract

Although increasing numbers of studies have linked emotions to sustainable consumption, little is known regarding the different effects that various emotions may have on specific sustainable consumption behavior. Based on research data that included 775 residents of Hangzhou, a big city in an emerging country, this paper studied the impacts of four emotions, i.e., pride, guilt, respect, and anger, on consumers' intention of sustainable consumption choice of household appliances. Using the partial least squares structural equation model, the results show that sustainable consumption choices of household appliances has two facets: resisting non-energy conserving household appliances and purchasing energy conserving household appliances. Pride, guilt, and respect all have positive impacts on both facets, whereas anger only has a positive impact on the latter. Pride is the most powerful influence among these four emotions. Furthermore, the resistance behavior can mediate the effects of pride, guilt, and respect on the purchase behavior. This study confirms that the four emotions can take active roles in promoting sustainable consumption and extends current knowledge in this area by 1) showing that respect and anger can affect sustainable consumption choices significantly; 2) demonstrating that the impact of a specific positive emotion on the intention of sustainable consumption choices may not be stronger than a specific negative emotion; and 3) identifying the inner structure of sustainable consumption choices. Furthermore, this paper presents important implications for policy makers that pride appeal is a good option to promote energy conserving products.