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The theory of licensing effect suggests that consumers tend to perform self-interested or self-indulgent actions after undertaking altruistic behaviors. How do past altruistic experiences affect the willingness of consumers to perform charitable behaviors in the future? Results from an exploratory approach comprising three laboratory studies and one field experiment demonstrate the existence of licensing effect in charitable conditions. We find that consumers are more unwilling to undertake charitable activities when they recall past similar experiences. The donation resources (time/money) do not influence the licensing effect. Two other variables moderate the size of the licensing effect: the way in which the initial charitable behavior is recalled (abstract vs. concrete) and the attribution for initial charitable behavior (collective vs. individual). We find that consumers are more reluctant to carry out charitable behavior when: (1) they recall the concrete details rather than the abstract goal of past activity; (2) consumers are praised for individual efforts rather than collective contribution in past activity. These findings offer new theoretical insights into the licensing effect in consumers’ charitable behaviors and set out practical implications for the sustainability of charitable programs.

Current research on consumer behavior of green advertising mostly focuses on advertising attitude or consumer behavior, while few studies have extended the topic to explore the consumers’ behavior after green consumption. The “Licensing effect”, which is a paradoxical side effect of green advertising, has been verified to exist in the consumption context in many countries. This paradoxical effect between cognition and behavior refers to the circumstance that consumers show non-green behavior after green consumption, which is contrary to the original intention of green advertising. However, at present, few scholars have verified and deeply explored that effect in the context of China. This study explores the “licensing effect” of green advertising through two factors: environmental protection cognition and advertising appeal. Through a 2 × 3 experiment, we find that: 1. The licensing effect is applicable in the Chinese consumption context; 2. The licensing effect only exists in individuals with low environmental protection cognition; 3. The appeal mode of green advertising turns out to be an effective moderator, and rational appeal can effectively prevent the licensing effect. This research expands the research scope of green advertising and provides a new vision for the study of consumer behavior in green advertising. In addition, the moderation role of advertising appeal verified by our study has guiding significance for green advertising practice.

To reduce obesity and thus promote healthy food choices, front-of-pack (FOP) labels have been introduced. Though FOP labels help identify healthy foods, their impact on actual food choices is rather small. A newly developed so-called swipe task was used to investigate whether the type of label used (summary vs. nutrient-specific) had differential effects on different operationalizations of the “healthier choice” measure (e.g., calories and sugar). After learning about the product offerings of a small online store, observers (N = 354) could, by means of a swipe gesture, purchase the products they needed for a weekend with six people. Observers were randomly assigned to one of five conditions, two summary label conditions (Nutri-Score and HFL), two nutrient (sugar)-specific label conditions (manga and comic), or a control condition without a label. Unexpectedly, more products (+7.3 products)—albeit mostly healthy ones—and thus more calories (+1732 kcal) were purchased in the label conditions than in the control condition. Furthermore, the tested labels had different effects with respect to the different operationalizations (e.g., manga reduced sugar purchase). We argue that the additional green-labeled healthy products purchased (in label conditions) “compensate” for the purchase of red-labeled unhealthy products (see averaging bias and licensing effect).