Moral persuasion and normative regulation: How transgenerational education influences green consumption behavior with varying power distance orientation

The upward intergenerational transmission of green concepts from children to parents can help promote the transition to green consumption behavior. This process can alter consumer perceptions and behavioral orientation. However, its effectiveness largely depends on parents' pre-existing attitudes toward power distance. It is thus of practical significance to explore the pathways through which environmental education initiated by children affects their parents' consumption behavior, and to analyze how cultural values shape the process by which children receive environmental education that ultimately encourages their parents to adopt green consumption practices. This study introduced the concept of transgenerational education and constructed a model to examine its impact on green consumption behavior under the pervasive moderating effect of power distance orientation. Through two phases of field experiments, we found that child-initiated transgenerational education not only directly influenced their parents' green consumption behavior but also promoted such behavior through two mechanisms: moral persuasion and normative regulation. Furthermore, the power distance orientation had a semi-permeable moderating effect on these pathways. On the one hand, transgenerational education fostered green consumption behavior by enhancing the perception of green parental responsibility, and power distance orientation moderated the relationship between responsibility attribution and green consumption behavior. On the other hand, transgenerational education shaped group norms within families. It exerts normative pressure on behavioral choices and is influenced by the family's level of power distance orientation.