IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/irpnmk/v22y2025i3d10.1007_s12208-025-00443-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of social aspiration and identity congruence in driving anti-green consumption: evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Christu Raja Mudiyappan

    (National Sun Yat-sen University)

  • Antonyinico I

    (St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous))

  • Min-Hsin Huang

    (National Sun Yat-sen University)

Abstract

This study investigates how social exclusion influences consumer rejection of sustainable products through heightened social aspiration, moderated by identity congruence. Drawing on Social Aspiration Theory and Social Identity Theory, the research explores the psychological mechanisms underlying status-driven anti-green consumption. Across three experimental studies conducted in India, we manipulated social exclusion and measured its effects on attitudes and intentions toward green products. The results consistently demonstrate that socially excluded individuals are more likely to reject sustainable products as a means of signalling status, particularly when their perceived identity congruence with green consumption is low. These findings make significant theoretical contributions by extending compensatory consumption and identity-signalling literature into the sustainability domain. Practically, the study offers actionable insights for marketers, policymakers, and public interest campaigns by underscoring the importance of repositioning green products to align with aspirational and status-related motivations in emerging markets. This research adds novel empirical evidence to the limited literature on anti-green behaviour and highlights the relevance of social and identity-based factors in shaping sustainable consumption avoidance.

Suggested Citation

  • Christu Raja Mudiyappan & Antonyinico I & Min-Hsin Huang, 2025. "The role of social aspiration and identity congruence in driving anti-green consumption: evidence from India," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 22(3), pages 693-711, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:22:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s12208-025-00443-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s12208-025-00443-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12208-025-00443-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12208-025-00443-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:22:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s12208-025-00443-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.