Linking consumers' anticipated guilt to green consumption intention: testing the role of perceived consumer effectiveness and green involvement

Green consumer behaviour has received increasing attention in recent years, but research offers only limited explanations for the links between consumers' positive attitudes and their behaviour. Drawing from the consumer psychology literature and the theory of cognitive dissonance, we start by the anticipated guilt and highlight the role of perceived consumer effectiveness in the relationship between anticipated guilt and green consumer intention. Based on the hypotheses, we propose a conceptual model of anticipated guilt-green consumer intention link under different green involvement. We test our arguments with the survey data of 435 questionnaires and a structural equation model via Amos software. The results show that consumers' anticipated guilt is positively associated with their perceived effectiveness, and increases green consumption intention through the mediating mechanism of perceived consumer effectiveness. Green involvement negatively moderates the relationship between anticipated guilt and green consumption intention.