The Role of Pro-environmental Self-Identity and Green Stigma in Environmentally Friendly Consumption Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

This research proposes an extended value–attitude–behavior (VAB) model to explain consumers’ environmentally friendly consumption behavior (EFC) in India's emerging market. It examines how green consumption values (GCV) influence behavior through the sequential mediation of environmental and pro-environmental self-identity. The study further introduces green stigma as a moderating variable in the extended model to address the attitude–behavior gap reported in prior literature on environmentally friendly consumption.

The results showed a substantial direct effect of GCV on environmentally friendly consumption behavior, thereby supporting the foundational VAB assumptions. However, when mediators were incorporated, this direct effect decreased, confirming the presence of indirect effects through both environmental attitude and pro-environmental self-identity, suggesting sequential mediation. Furthermore, the results confirm that green stigma significantly weakens the link between pro-environmental self-identity and actual behavior, thereby offering a possible explanation for the attitude–behavior gap identified in earlier studies.

The moderated mediation analysis further revealed that the indirect effect of GCV on behavior via self-identity decreases as green stigma increases. Overall, these findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of pro-environmental self-identity in the VAB model and highlight the importance of considering green stigma in explaining the attitude–behavior gap in environmentally friendly consumption research.