伦理消费(Ethical consumption,EC)是指消费者在获取、使用或处置产品时考虑到个人消费行为对社会、环境或动物福祉的影响。虽然伦理消费日渐流行,但在金钱支付时伦理消费的态度却往往难以转化为实际的行为,即言行不一。本文从解释水平理论视角出发,以“心理距离→解释水平→个体反应”为分析框架展开。从时间维度上来说,在态度评价阶段和产品选择阶段两个时间点上,消费者与伦理产品的心理距离远近不同,分别激活了高低解释水平表征;高低解释水平下个体在动机和认知上又存在诸多差异,这种差异导致两个阶段的反应不同,继而出现伦理消费者态度与行为的分离。未来研究应重点关注如何根据解释水平理论有效提高伦理消费行为。
Ethical consumption refers to that consumers should consider the impact of their consumption choices upon the environment, animals and society in the acquisition, use or disposal of products. Despite embracing the values of ethical consumerism, most consumers rarely support their beliefs at the cheek-out counter, which is considered to be the attitude-behavior gap. This study shed light on the attitude-behavior gap of ethical consumers from the perspective of construal level. From the temporal dimension, ethical consumer is in high construal level when evaluating ethical products, since he or she is far from ethical products in psychological distance, but in purchasing stage, ethical consumer is near from ethical products, so he or she is in low construal level. There are many differences in motivation and cognition under different construal levels, which lead to the attitude-behavior gap. Future research needs to focus on how to transfer this kind of support into truly positive purchasing behavior.