Symbols to Maintain the Moral Self: Moral Self-Threats Increase Purchase Intentions for Ethical Brands & Products

Ethical consumption is a clean medium to obtain identity-relevant symbols for self-completion after moral self-threats. Supporting a symbolic self-completion perspective, two studies demonstrated that moral threats increased positive evaluations and purchase intentions toward consumer brands/products viewed as ethical compared to moral self-affirmation, and even compared to negative but non-moral threats.