Research on the influence of anthropomorphic design on the consumers' express packaging recycling willingness:the moderating effect of psychological ownership

• Published in: Resources, conservation and recycling Vol. 168; p. 105269
• Main Authors: Ding, Zhihua, Sun, Jing, Wang, Yawei, Jiang, Xuehui, Liu, Rong, Sun, Wenbin, Mou, Yupeng, Wang, Dianwen, Liu, Manzhi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-05-2021
• Subjects: Anthropomorphic design; Consumers' express packaging recycling willingness; Empathy; Psychological ownership; Psychological ownership; Empathy; Anthropomorphic design; Consumers' express packaging recycling willingness
• ISSN: 0921-3449; 1879-0658
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105269

•Making consumers understand express packaging as a person (rather than a non-human item) will increase consumers' empathy and affect consumers' recycling willingness .•Anthropomorphism not only affects consumers' purchasing willingness and willingness to pay, but also has a significant impact on consumers' recycling willingness.•Psychological ownership can be used as a good boundary condition to moderate the relationship between anthropomorphic design and empathy.
The change of consumers' shopping mode has caused massive express packaging waste, which results in resource waste and environmental pollution. Therefore, the recycling of express packaging has become an important environmental protection requirements as well as social issue and it requires an urgent solution. At the same time, the impact of anthropomorphism on consumer behavior is increasingly prominent. Built on the "A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism" and the "Theory of Perspective-Taking", this article established a psychological dynamic theoretical model about the effect of anthropomorphic design on consumers' recycling willingness. Through four experiments, variance analysis and regression analysis, it can be concluded that: (1) Anthropomorphic design has a significant positive impact on the consumers' express packaging recycling willingness, and empathy plays a mediating effect between them. (2) Compared with anthropomorphic language design, anthropomorphic shape design has a more significant impact on consumers' express packaging recycling willingness. (3) High psychological ownership has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between anthropomorphic design and empathy, i.e., the higher the consumer's psychological ownership, the stronger the mediating effect of empathy. Low psychological ownership has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between anthropomorphic design and empathy. Therefore, consumers' willingness to recycle express packaging can be promoted by improving their psychological ownership and the anthropomorphic design of express packaging.