Green Experiences: Using Green Products Improves the Accompanying Consumption Experience

The current research examines how using green products (e.g., environmentally friendly headphones) influences the enjoyment of the accompanying consumption experience (e.g., listening to music). Results reveal that consumers enjoy accompanying experiences more with green (vs. conventional) products and feelings of warm glow drive this effect. Green products are available to consumers in various product categories but research on how green products influence consumer behavior at the consumption stage is scarce. In order to predict how using green products would influence the consumption experience, we draw from research on warm glow. Theory of warm glow giving posits that people feel good upon a prosocial behavior, including proenvironmental behavior (Andreoni 1990; Giebelhausen et al. 2016). One thing common in research on warm glow is that people make a conscious choice to behave in a prosocial manner (e.g., donation). Extending this stream of research, we suggest that simply using a green product, even if the product is given to consumer without choice, will elicit warm glow feelings. In case the green product (e.g., a pair of headphones) has an accompanying experience (e.g., listening to music), the warm glow feelings that arise due to using green products will enhance the enjoyment of the consumption experience.