Effects Of Parental Lay Theories Of Fostering Autonomy On The Children's Ethical Consumption

In recent years,ethical consumption has attracted widespread concern in academic circles.Nowadays,the rapid development of economy has brought about a series of social and ecological environment problems.How to promote ethical consumption that does not damage the society,animals and ecological environment has gradually become one of the hot spots concerned by government departments and enterprises.Under this background,the domestic and foreign scholars carried out extensive research about moral consumption.However,previous studies mainly focused on discussing the characteristics of consumers themselves,and few studies examined the impact of third-party factors on consumers' ethical consumption.Therefore,from the perspective of the third party,this paper explores the influence of parental lay theories of fostering autonomy on children's ethical consumption,and focuses on the mechanism of empathy as an important factor affecting ethical consumption in it.This paper explores the influence of parental lay theories of fostering autonomy on children's empathy and ethical consumption through three studies.In study 1,the relationship between parental lay theories of fostering autonomy and children's empathy was tested.Study 2 used the experimental method to further verify the influence of parental lay theories of fostering autonomy on children's empathy by manipulating the level of parental lay theories of fostering autonomy.Study 3 also investigated the undergraduate students and their parents,by analyzing the matching data,we examined the relationship between parental lay theories of fostering autonomy and children's empathy and ethical consumption,and examined the mediating role of different dimensions of empathy in it.Through the statistical analysis of the research results,the following main conclusions are drawn:(1)Parental lay theories of fostering autonomy has a positive impact on children's ethical consumption.Specifically,compared with the lay theories that children's autonomy will naturally formed,parents with lay theories tend to think that children's autonomy is mainly developed by trained,compared with self-interest products,their children are more inclined to purchase products with ethical appeal,that is,more inclined to ethical consumption.(2)Parental lay theories of fostering autonomy has a positive effect on children's empathy.Compared with natural formation,parents tend to think that their children's ability of autonomy is mainly through trained,their children can perspective taking(cognitive empathy)and empathic concern(emotional empathy)younger and higher,that is to say,the ability of perspective taking and empathic concern is higher.(3)The mediating role of perspective taking(cognitive empathy).Specifically,children's perspective taking plays a mediating role in the influence of parental lay theories of fostering autonomy on children's ethical consumption,while children's empathic concern does not play a mediating role in this path.From the perspective of the third party,this paper discriminates the influence of parental lay theories of fostering autonomy on children's empathy and ethical consumption,and the mediating mechanism of different dimensions of empathy.The research results provide new empirical evidence for the field of ethical consumption,and also provide practical inspiration for enterprises and relevant government departments.