UNTANGLING EMOTION PATHWAYS TO GREEN CONSUMPTION: A CULTURE-SENSITIVE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

China's organic food market is rapidly growing, and at the same time, public concern about food safety, which is often related to environmental degradation, is increasing. However, whether and how negative emotions stemming from food safety incidents affect green consumption remains unclear. This study explores how specific negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and shame influence green consumption and investigates the psychological and cultural mechanisms that drive these effects. Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a literature review of 62 articles. Sources were drawn from databases, including Web of Science and ScienceDirect, with a focus on literature related to emotions, sustainability, and cultural values. The conceptual model proposes two emotion-specific pathways. Anger and shame activate moral identity and encourage compensatory green behaviors. In contrast, anxiety leads to skepticism, especially in situations where people feel they have low efficacy. Cultural factors, such as collectivism, influence how these emotions are responded to. This study's primary theoretical contribution is a novel integrated framework that reveals the distinct behavioral pathways of discrete negative emotions (anger, shame, anxiety) in green consumption and, crucially, how these pathways are shaped by cultural context—a mechanism previously underexplored in sustainability literature.