A silver lining of the epidemic: how contagious disease salience leads to minimalistic consumption

Consumers are regularly confronted with contagious disease cues in the surrounding environment. Based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm, this study examines a silver lining of contagious disease salience (CDS) by developing a novel perspective concerning how CDS affects two forms of minimalistic consumption-reduction and refinement-that are effective approaches to improving environmental sustainability. Across three studies, we demonstrate that CDS increases minimalistic consumption. Importantly, two distinct underlying mechanisms that drive the proposed effect are identified. That is, desirability for control mediates the effect of CDS on consumption reduction (i.e., consuming less), whereas contamination concern mediates the effect of CDS on consumption refinement (i.e., consuming better). The findings not only offer novel insights into the existing research but also provide practitioners with tools to predict consumer preferences in the context of pandemic threats.