The Impact of Awe Induced by COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Consumption Behavior in China

Abstract

The association between changes in public sentiment induced by COVID-19 and green consumption behavior has not been studied deeply. This study proposes that the awe induced by the COVID-19 pandemic can have both negative and positive aspects, aiming to psychologically reveal why the pandemic is affecting green consumer behavior and explore potential pathways for differentiation. Research data were derived from Wuhan, China, and analyzed using experimental method. This study finds that awe of COVID-19 positively affects green consumption behavior. Specifically, due to fear, anxiety, and powerlessness, individuals with negative awe of COVID-19 instinctively need to respond to risk and pay more attention to their own safety and interests, so as to promote green consumption. However, positive awe of COVID-19 involves higher levels of cognition, such as admiration, inspiration, and optimism. It inspires a commitment to prioritize nature and social groups, and promotes green consumption behavior. As conclusions, different types of awe can be induced from public health emergencies like COVID-19 and have their own specific paths to effect green consumption behavior. These findings could help governments and marketers build future policies and strategies to reasonably guide public sentiment in order to better promote green consumption in this epidemic.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Stock Price of Socially Responsible Enterprises: An Empirical Study in Taiwan Stock Market

“…COVID-19-related topics are now widely studied by scholars. For example, Gatta et al [41] apply a machine learning approach to predict the virus spread and analyze how different lock-down strategies can effectively influence the pandemic diffusion; Le et al [42] discuss the measures that countries can take in the face of a pandemic; and Sun et al [43] explore the impact of COVID-19 on green consumption behavior. This study focuses on the stock market.…”

Predicting Consumer Green Product Purchase Attitudes and Behavioral Intention During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The green products purchase attitude and consumer behavioral intention have been a noble phenomenon to protect the COVID-19 environment and to save human health. Green purchase intention has been covered by many previous studies from time to time, for example, consumers’ green perceptions, green product purchase attitudes and sustainable green product behavioral intention, green labeling, and green supply chain management ( Newaz et al, 2020 ; Shukor et al, 2020 ; Sun et al, 2021 ).…”

Sustainable Consumption in Consumer Behavior in the Time of COVID-19: Topic Modeling on Twitter Data Using LDA

“…A significant body of research shows that emotions play a crucial role in consumer behavior, including behavioral consumption patterns [141][142][143][144]. Research has also been carried out on the specific emotions (e.g., fear, guilt, joy, and pride) that shape sustainable consumption [31,145,146], including the impact of emotions on sustainable consumption in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic [21,147,148]. In the above-mentioned publications, both the influence of the positive emotions, like sympathy, joy, and peacefulness [147], and negative emotions, e.g., consumers' perceived threat [21] on sustainable consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic, were analyzed.…”