绿色还是享乐?参与环保活动对消费行为的影响

Green or hedonic? The impact of proenvironmental action on consumption preference

以往对于环保问题的研究主要关注如何促进人们更多从事环保行为,较少有研究涉及参与环保行为后会产生怎样的影响,而且这方面的研究也没有一个一致的结论。通过3个实验发现当绿色消费和享乐消费是竞争关系时,对于认为环境价值观重要的个体来说,无论参与环保活动是出于内在动机还是外在动机都会增强消费者的环保自我担当,促进绿色消费,而对于认为环境价值观不重要的个体来说,只有参与环保活动是出于内在动机的时候才会增加消费者环保目标进展的感知,促进享乐消费,出于外在动机参与环保活动并不会促进享乐消费。

In our daily life, people have many chances to engage in environmental actions （e.g., bringing one＇s own shopping bags, using products that can be recycled, buying energy efficient household appliances）. Prior literature mainly focuses on how to encourage environmentally responsible behaviors. Only a few studies examine the influence of environmental actions on subsequent behaviors. However, the results of these studies are not consistent. For example, some studies find that reminding people they commonly perform environmental behaviors promotes them do more environmental conscious behaviors. On the contrary, other studies indicate that people are less altruistic after buying green products than after buying conventional products. Focusing on consumption behaviors, this study proposed that when green consumption and hedonic consumption .were competing with each other, environmental value moderated the impact of environmental action on subsequent consumption preference. Moreover, this study also argued that the effect of environmental action on subsequent consumption preference depended on environmental action motivation.Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. To test the moderating effect of environmental value,Study lused a 2 （environmental action： yes vs. no）×2 （environmental value： weak vs. strong） between-subjects dejign.Environmental values were measured using the Schwartz Value Survey. Environmental action was manipulated by asking participants to read a scenario in which they either had performed an environmental action or not. To test the effect of environmental action motivation, Study 2 used a 3 （environmental action： intrinsically motivated vs. extrinsically motivated vs. no） × 2 （environmental value： weak vs. strong） between-subjects design. Environmental action motivation was manipulated by asking participants to engage in an environmental survey either to benefit the environment or to benefit themselves. Participants in the control group answered some questions irrelevant to the environmental protection. Based on the result of study 2, study 3 further tested the effect of environmental action motivation on the relationship between environmental action and subsequent consumption preference, using another way to measure environmental value. We asked participants to rank the priority of 11 values on a list. The rank of environmental value reflected the importance of environmental value to participants. The results revealed that when green consumption conflicted with hedonic consumption, environmental value moderated the effect of environmental action on subsequent consumption behaviors. Specifically, environmental action increased green consumption （vs. hedonic consumption） for consumers with strong environmental value, but decreased green consumption （vs. hedonic consumption） for consumers with weak environmental value. Furthermore, environmental action motivation also influenced the effect of environmental action on subsequent consumption behaviors. Specifically, both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated environmental actions increased green consumption （vs. hedonic consumption） for consumers with strong environmental value through enhanced environmental self-accountability, but only intrinsically motivated environmental action decreased green consumption （vs. hedonic consumption） for consumers with weak environmental value through increased perception of environmental goal progress. In conclusion, the present research demonstrated that both environmental value and environmental action motivation influenced how environmental action affected subsequent green consumption versus hedonic consumption. Theoretically, our research provides insights into the impact of environmental action on subsequent consumption. Practically, our research suggests that marketers should provide environmental cues to motivate consumers with strong environmental value to choose green products, and combine hedonie consumption with environmental actions to motivate consumers with weak environmental value to engage in environmental actions.