“趋近”还是“回避”?——敬畏感影响绿色品牌偏好的双路径效应及机制研究

“Approach” or “Avoidance”:A Study of the Dual Pathway Effect and Mechanism of Awe on Green Brand Preferences

在面对频发的极端气候事件和未知病毒的蔓延时,重申“敬畏他人、敬畏自然、敬畏生命”的伦理态度,坚持人与自然和谐共生、坚持绿色发展显得尤为必要。现有关于敬畏感对绿色消费行为的研究大多仍囿于敬畏感是单一整体的前提,并重点关注了敬畏感的积极面,很少强调敬畏感的消极面对亲环境倾向的效应,更缺乏对积极和消极面双重效价的探讨。并且,现有关于敬畏感对绿色消费的研究并未得出一致的研究结论。本研究考察了“提升性敬畏感”和“威胁性敬畏感”两类敬畏感是否、如何以及在何种情形下影响消费者的绿色品牌偏好。通过五项实验室实验和一项田野实验发现,不同类型的敬畏感会对消费者的绿色品牌偏好产生双路径效应。具体而言,相较于中性条件,提升性敬畏感被诱发的消费者更偏好绿色品牌,因为此类敬畏感激发了消费者的亲社会动机;威胁性敬畏感被诱发的消费者也会表现出对绿色品牌的偏好,因为此类敬畏感更易使消费者形成风险回避动机。本文从个体敬畏感的双重效价出发,为激活绿色消费提供了新的视角,研究结论对企业选择多样化的情绪引导策略、开展绿色营销实践具有重要的理论与现实指导意义。

The Confucian concept of awe has a long history,and the survival wisdom of “harmony between heaven and man” has always been embedded in the spiritual core of the Chinese people.However,since the first industrial revolution,human activities have constantly touched the boundaries and bottom lines of natural ecology.Addressing climate change and the spread of unknown viruses is crucial to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation and the future of humanity.The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China points out that we should respect,adapt to,and protect nature,and emphasize the promotion of green,ecological,and sustainable development.It is particularly necessary to reiterate the traditional value concept of “having awe in our hearts and stopping at the limit”.Cultivating green consumption awareness is particularly important.In consumption decisions,how to inspire consumers' awe,increase consumers' preference for green brands/products,is a problem that governments and enterprises urgently need to address.Therefore,it is worth further exploring and studying the intrinsic mechanism of how awe affects green consumption preferences,as well as the theoretical explanation mechanism behind it.Most of the existing research on awe and green consumption behavior is still limited to the premise that awe is a single whole,and focuses on the positive aspects of awe,rarely emphasizing the negative effects of awe on pro-environmental tendencies,and lacking a discussion of the dual valence of positive and negative aspects.Moreover,existing research on awe and green consumption has not reached consistent conclusions.This article examines whether,how,and under what circumstances “enhanced awe” and “threatened awe” affect consumers' preference for green brands.Through five laboratory experiments and one field experiment,it is found that different types of awe have a dual-path effect on consumers' preference for green brands.Specifically,compared to neutral conditions,consumers who are induced to enhance their sense of awe prefer green brands,as such awe inspires pro-social motivations in consumers.Consumers who are induced to experience threatening awe also exhibit a preference for green brands,as such awe is more likely to motivate consumers to form risk-aversion motivations.In addition,the dual-path effect is also moderated by the “stereotype content model”(perception of warmth vs.perception of competence).The theoretical contribution of this paper is reflected in the following aspects.First of all,this paper expands the research on the dual double characteristics of awe,and puts forward the dual perspectives of “enhanced awe” and “threatened awe” to make up for the inconsistent conclusions in the existing research on awe and promote the research on awe.Most of the existing studies on awe do not distinguish the double of awe,and focus on the positive side of awe,ignoring the negative impact of awe on downstream variables.In this study,the dual potency of awe is integrated,which provides a reference for future research on the results applicable to all types of awe based on the core characteristics of awe.Secondly,this study made up for the lack of natural factors to induce the sense of awe,and supplemented the experiment of unnatural factors(COVID-19 pandemic) to induce the sense of awe.More importantly,although green consumption has been paid attention to and copied by scholars since it was proposed,no scholars have yet tested the stability of the dual double of awe from the natural and unnatural awe inducement factors.Third,this study provides a new explanation mechanism for the study of green consumption.The introduction of “approach-avoidance” framework has enriched the double mediating variables of green consumption preference and proposed the possibility of a double path.The “stereotype content model” further expands the boundaries of the dual path effect and promotes the study of green consumption.