IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/tfsx7_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Confessions of a Green Consumer: Exploring Religiosity, Virtue Signaling, and Sustainable Choices

Author

Listed:
  • Amponsah, Senyo Obed
  • Owusuaa-Foster, Judith

Abstract

As churches preach stewardship of the Earth and social media influencers post pictures of bamboo toothbrushes, the crossroads between personal faith and green purchase intentions demands closer study. This study explores how a person’s depth of religious belief influences their intention to buy green products, and whether conspicuous virtue signaling (CVS) motivates those intentions. CVS refers to publicly showcasing one’s ethical actions, such as posting about eco-friendly purchases, to express moral identity or gain social approval. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, Goal Content Theory, and the Theory of Reasoned Action, this research distinguishes between intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity and how they influence green choices when motivated by virtue signaling. The study employed structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from 206 students and young professionals in Ghana. The findings reveal that intrinsic religiosity significantly boosts green purchase intentions, while extrinsic religiosity does not directly lead to greener buying choices. However, both intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity increase virtue signaling behaviors. Interestingly, even individuals who engage in religious activities for social reasons are more likely to "show off" their eco-friendly behavior online, which in turn increases their likelihood of intending to buy green products. These results suggest that public displays of environmental responsibility, whether driven by genuine faith or social image, can powerfully motivate sustainable consumer behavior. The study offers new insights for marketers and policymakers: green campaigns can appeal not only to private moral values but also to the human desire for social recognition. Framing eco-friendly choices as both personally meaningful and publicly admirable could effectively engage religious audiences in promoting sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Amponsah, Senyo Obed & Owusuaa-Foster, Judith, 2025. "Confessions of a Green Consumer: Exploring Religiosity, Virtue Signaling, and Sustainable Choices," OSF Preprints tfsx7_v1, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:tfsx7_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/tfsx7_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/68328442c325c4442253940f/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/tfsx7_v1?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Delgado, Michael S. & Harriger, Jessica L. & Khanna, Neha, 2015. "The value of environmental status signaling," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1-11.
    2. Jonah Berger & Morgan Ward, 2010. "Subtle Signals of Inconspicuous Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(4), pages 555-569, December.
    3. Ro'ee Levy, 2021. "Social Media, News Consumption, and Polarization: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(3), pages 831-870, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ho, Foo Nin & Wong, Jared & Brodowsky, Glen, 2023. "Does masstige offer the prestige of luxury without the social costs? Status and warmth perceptions from masstige and luxury signals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    2. Matheus Nardo & Jeremy S. Brooks & Sonja Klinsky & Charlie Wilson, 2017. "Social signals and sustainability: ambiguity about motivations can affect status perceptions of efficiency and curtailment behaviors," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 184-197, June.
    3. Felix Chopras & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth, 2024. "The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns Versus Belief Confirmation Motives," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(661), pages 1806-1834.
    4. Francesco Capozza & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2021. "Studying Information Acquisition in the Field: A Practical Guide and Review," CEBI working paper series 21-15, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    5. Carattini, Stefano & Gillingham, Kenneth & Meng, Xiangyu & Yoeli, Erez, 2024. "Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 340-370.
    6. Rosenbaum, Mark S. & Ramirez, Germán Contreras & Campbell, Jeffrey & Klaus, Philipp, 2021. "The product is me: Hyper-personalized consumer goods as unconventional luxury," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 446-454.
    7. Delgado, Michael S. & Khanna, Neha, 2015. "Voluntary Pollution Abatement and Regulation," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 1-20, April.
    8. Jin, Ting & Prentice, Catherine & Shao, Wei, 2021. "Identifying antecedent conditions for luxury brand purchase," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Desmichel, Perrine & Ordabayeva, Nailya & Kocher, Bruno, 2020. "What if diamonds did not last forever? Signaling status achievement through ephemeral versus iconic luxury goods," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 49-65.
    10. Koo, Jayoung & Im, Hyunjoo, 2019. "Going up or down? Effects of power deprivation on luxury consumption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 443-449.
    11. Nicolás Ajzenman & Bruno Ferman & Sant’Anna Pedro C., 2023. "Discrimination in the Formation of Academic Networks: A Field Experiment on #EconTwitter," Working Papers 235, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    12. Maurizio Pugno, 2024. "Social media effects on well‐being: The hypothesis of addiction of a new variety," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3), pages 690-704, August.
    13. Ester Faia & Andreas Fuster & Vincenzo Pezone & Basit Zafar, 2024. "Biases in Information Selection and Processing: Survey Evidence from the Pandemic," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(3), pages 829-847, May.
    14. Nicolás Ajzenman & Bruno Ferman & Pedro C. Sant’Anna, 2023. "Rooting for the Same Team: On the Interplay between Political and Social Identities in the Formation of Social Ties," Working Papers 231, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    15. Dominique Roux & Mariem El Maalej & Julie Boyer Dumont, 2016. "Les jugements critiques du luxe : une approche par la légitimité," Post-Print hal-04765156, HAL.
    16. Beknazar-Yuzbashev, George & Ichiba, Sota & Stalinski, Mateusz, 2025. "To the Depths of the Sunk Cost : Experiments Revisiting the Elusive Effect," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1544, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    17. Wang, Yajin, 2022. "A conceptual framework of contemporary luxury consumption," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 788-803.
    18. Boisvert, Jean & Christodoulides, George & Sajid Khan, M., 2023. "Toward a better understanding of key determinants and consequences of masstige consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    19. Choi, Dayeon & Seo, Yuri & Septianto, Felix & Ko, Eunju, 2022. "Luxury customization and self-authenticity: Implications for consumer wellbeing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 243-252.
    20. Alberto Alesina & Marco Tabellini, 2024. "The Political Effects of Immigration: Culture or Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 5-46, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:osf:osfxxx:tfsx7_v1. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    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.