Experimental Study On The Negative Spillover Effect Of Green Consumption

The increasingly serious environmental problems have become the main problems that affect the survival and development of human beings and these are essentially caused by human misconduct.If we want to solve the problem fundamentally,we need to change our existing unreasonable lifestyle and behavior habits,and we can effectively improve our environmental problems through green consumption and other means.Therefore,this study focuses on green consumption.Firstly,relevant literatures at home and abroad were reviewed.Through reviewing and summarizing the existing literatures,we found that green consumption behaviors in real life were often difficult to adhere to.Previous green consumption behaviors are likely to reduce the later green consumption.This phenomenon is known as the negative spillover effect of green consumption.Moral licensing theory offers a possible explanation for this thing.In the field of green consumption,it means that when people make green consumption,they obtain a moral psychological license,which allows them to reduce their future green consumption,or even engage in environmentally unfriendly behavior.This study discusses the negative spillover effect of green consumption and how to avoid it through three experiments.Study 1 explores whether there is a negative spillover effect in green consumption,mainly to examine whether participants will reduce green consumption after doing green behavior.In this study,experimental materials were used to initiate the initial green consumption,and willingness to green consumption was measured by scale.The results showed that participants who purchased green goods scored lower on the green consumption questionnaire than those who purchased traditional goods.This shows that there is indeed a negative spillover effect in green consumption,and the previous green behavior will allow people to make environmentally unfriendly behavior.Study 2 explores under what circumstances negative spillovers will not occur.In this study,the participants' construal level was measured by the behavior identification scale,and their subsequent scores on the green consumption questionnaire were then examined.The study found that the subjects with low construal level would reduce their subsequent green behavior due to the purchase of green goods.But participants with high construal levels,whether or not they had purchased green goods before,did not affect their subsequent green consumption,and negative spillovers did not occur.Study 3 further examines the role of construal levels in the negative spillover effects of green consumption and explores the mediation mechanism of negative spillovers in green consumption – guilt.In Study 3,the construal level was not measured by the BIE,but by the experimental materials to activate the subjects' high/low construal levels.The results of Study 3 confirmed the mediating role of guilt of the negative spillover effects of green consumption.Using the theory of moral psychology license to study green consumption behavior is a relatively unique perspective.In the past studies,more attention was paid to the predictive variables before green consumption or various factors affecting green consumption,only few studies focused on the sustainability of green consumption,that is,the impact of green consumption on subsequent behavior.This paper uses the theory of moral licensing to explore the impact of previous green consumption on follow-up behavior.In addition,this study also uses the theory of construal level to study how negative spillover effects can be avoided.Finally,in order to understand the mediation mechanism of the negative spillover effect of green consumption,this paper also proposes the mediator of guilt.In short,this article mainly answers the question of how to make people adhere to green behavior.According to the results of this study,people can pay more attention to the subsequent impact of green consumption,and can also provide reliable advice on how to adhere to green consumption,help people cultivate long-term good consumption habits,and contribute to the construction of our environmental protection.