Many consumer choices nowadays involve ethical considerations (e.g., when buying clothes consumers can often choose between a standard and an ethically produced collection). Previous work has shown that how people feel after such ethically connotated consumer choices is a central determinant of their future ethical consumer behavior. However, most of that research focuses on the effect of choice outcomes (ethical vs. unethical product) on emotional and behavioral reactions. Challenging this outcome-focused approach, the present paper proposes that the experience of conflict (e.g., between ethical goals vs. self-interest) during decision-making has a significant additional effect on emotional reactions and future behavior. Results from one fully powered, preregistered study (N = 383) showed that conflict strength predicted increased negative post-choice emotions and reduced choice satisfaction. Importantly, this pattern occurred for ethical as well as unethical choice outcomes. Conflict also increased the likelihood of making the opposite choice in a subsequent ethical consumer choice situation—again independent of participants' prior choice. Those results are an important extension of previous work as they highlight the importance of taking experienced conflict into account when predicting post-choice emotions and future ethical consumer behavior.

中文翻译：

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即使很难，也有做正确事的感觉？道德消费者决策过程中冲突的情感和行为后果

如今，许多消费者选择都涉及道德考量（例如，在购买衣服时，消费者通常可以在标准服装和符合道德标准的产品系列之间进行选择）。先前的研究表明，人们对这种具有道德意义的消费者选择的感受如何是他们未来道德消费者行为的主要决定因素。然而，大多数研究集中在选择结果（道德与不道德产品）对情绪和行为反应的影响上。挑战这种以结果为中心的方法，本文提出决策过程中的冲突经历（例如，道德目标与个人利益之间的冲突）对情绪反应和未来行为具有重要的额外影响。一项功能强大且预先注册的研究的结果（N= 383）表明冲突强度预示了选择后的负面情绪增加和选择满意度降低。重要的是，这种模式发生在道德和不道德的选择结果上。冲突还增加了在随后的符合道德的消费者选择情况下做出相反选择的可能性，而这种选择又独立于参与者的先前选择。这些结果是先前工作的重要扩展，因为它们突出了在预测选择后的情绪和未来的道德消费者行为时考虑到有经验的冲突的重要性。