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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1503642
Green Self-accountability and Temporal Distance Impact on Sustainable Consumption Behavior: The Mediating Role of Anticipated Emotions
Provisionally accepted- 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, Beijing, China
- 2 Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Purpose: With the rise in global consumption depleting natural resources and harming the environment, promoting sustainable consumption is essential. Our study explores how green self-accountability affects sustainable purchasing over different time frames, examining the impact on short (one week) and long-term (one year) choices towards green products and the underlying mechanisms.Methods: We conducted two experiments where participants made green purchasing decisions, with the first activating green self-accountability and the second also measuring anticipated emotional responses.Results: Findings show that green self-accountability boosts sustainable purchasing, particularly for immediate choices, driven by anticipated pride in buying green products.Conclusion: Green self-accountability significantly enhances sustainable purchasing, aided by anticipated pride. This suggests that marketing strategies emphasizing environmental urgency and consumers' eco-unfriendly behaviors can foster sustainable consumer habits.
Keywords: Green Self-accountability, temporal distance, Sustainable Purchasing Behavior, anticipated guilt, Anticipated Pride
Received: 30 Sep 2024; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhong, Feng, li and Fan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wei Fan, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.