There are “moral meanings” that people ascribe to objects in white and black colors. Namely, it seems that people have been conditioned to see objects in white color as potentially “morally good” and those in black color as potentially “bad.” In the current inquiry, we would therefore hypothesize that consumers see buying a product in white color as an act that is morally good and buying a product in black color as an act that is morally bad. If so, then, in accordance with the moral regulation theory, those who buy white‐colored products should feel licensed to behave less prosocially afterward, while those who buy black‐colored products should be more prosocial as they feel a need to compensate for their initial misconduct. We investigate such a hypothesis in six studies, examining prosociality after buying white‐ or black‐colored products. The results are consistent with our hypothesizing and highlight a moral credentials framework in particular in explaining why the effect occurs. Consequently, product colors do not only satisfy the diversity of consumer tastes but they also impact consumers’ prosocial behavior well‐beyond product choice and outside of retail domains.

中文翻译：

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为我上色：白色和黑色的产品颜色会影响亲社会行为

人们将白色和黑色的物体归为“道德意义”。即，似乎人们已经习惯于将白色物体视为潜在的“道德良好”，而将黑色物体视为潜在的“不良”。因此，在当前的询问中，我们假设消费者将购买白色的产品视为道德上良好的行为，而将黑色的产品视为道德上不良的行为。如果是这样的话，那么根据道德规范理论，购买白色产品的人应获得许可，其后的行为将减少社会上的行为，而购买黑色产品的人应具有更亲社会的态度，因为他们认为需要补偿自己的行为。最初的不当行为。我们在六项研究中研究了这种假设，研究了购买白色或黑色产品后的社会亲和力。结果与我们的假设是一致的，并特别强调了道德证明框架，特别是在解释了为什么会发生这种效果时。因此，产品颜色不仅可以满足消费者口味的多样性，而且不仅影响产品选择，而且影响零售领域之外，还影响消费者的亲社会行为。