Getting licence or keeping consistent? The role of moral identity in subsequent pro‐environmental behaviours

Abstract Although a great deal of literature has focused on the drivers of pro‐environmental behaviours, the effects of past product choices on future pro‐environmental product choices have not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study explores how choosing a green product influences subsequent pro‐environmental product preference. Drawing on the self‐perception and moral licensing research, we find that past green product consumption can yield two conflicting mechanisms: environmental self‐perception (the green spillover effect) and perceived goal progress (the green licensing effect). Given these two conflicting mechanisms, past pro‐environmental product selection subsequently either reinforces or undermines subsequent pro‐environmental product purchase preference. This study finds that these effects are contingent on the pre‐existing moral identities of individual consumers. Among consumers with high moral identity internalization or low moral identity symbolization, pro‐environmental product purchase preference is reinforced, whereas consumers with low moral identity internalization or high moral identity symbolization show less preference for pro‐environmental products after prior green consumption. Overall, these findings provide new insight into pro‐environmental product consumption and moral identity.