# When Do We Recover from Loneliness: The Role of Green Consumption and Social Value

## TL;DR

This study explores how green consumption helps people recover from loneliness by boosting their sense of social value.

## Contribution

The paper introduces the novel idea that green consumption aids emotional recovery from loneliness through perceived social value.

## Key findings

- Green consumption provides emotional benefits to lonely individuals through perceived social value.
- The study shows that emphasizing social and environmental benefits in marketing can help lonely individuals recover emotionally.
- Green consumption is linked to emotional recovery from loneliness in behavioral experiments.

## Abstract

While prior research has shown that loneliness has negative consequences on individuals’ mental and physical health, little is known about when and how individuals emotionally recover from it. This study investigates whether individuals’ engagement in green consumption alters the extent to which they emotionally recover from loneliness. Across behavioral experiments, we show that green consumption offers emotional benefit for those experiencing loneliness through their perceived social value. This research advances the theoretical understanding of the effectiveness of green consumption in emotional recovery from loneliness. Moreover, we provide practical guidance for marketers to design advertisements and campaigns that emphasize the social and environmental benefits of green consumption.