Impacting Emotions for Pro-environmental Consumption: Literature Analysis and Empirical Evidence

Abstract

For environmental innovation, people’s knowledge is necessary to protect the environment. However, just knowing the importance of environmental protection does not lead to effective actions for environmental innovation (Kong & Lee, 2016). For knowledge to become action, it is important for people to be emotionally motivated. To study the emotional factor for environmental innovation, this study analyzes the literature on how emotions influence people’s purchase actions and proposes the idea of using arts to influence consumer's emotion and induce pro-environmental consumption (Kong & Lee, 2016). This research first reviews literature on the role of emotion for pro-environmental consumption. Then it explores if arts can induce consumer’s emotion to make decisions to buy green products or to participate in environmental protection. To seek empirical evidence, this research measures the willingness of a group of consumers to participate in a tree planting program before and after the participants are exposed to a piece of artwork. The preliminary findings of this study are valuable for understanding how to increase the adoption of certain innovative products or services of social value (Kong & Lee, 2016).