Involving issues of environmental, consumer safety and health, and/or social concerns, a morally controversial action refers to an activity that does not have a single standard of ethics for all people, making it challenging to draw a clear line between what is ethical versus unethical. Despite its ambiguity, any firm can be involved in it, especially when the firm operates in the global marketplace where a variety of social, health, and environmental consequences surrounding a given action are questioned by consumers. If consumers come to know of a familiar brand’s morally controversial behavior, it can create approach-avoidance conflicts in their minds; they may see the brand’s action as mismatched with their own moral standards (“avoidance” manifested through a measurable construct––moral incongruence), while being tempted to justify the action (“approach” manifested through moral rationalization).

The economic harm and survival fear caused by environmental conflicts are most likely to become the psychological lever to drive individuals to adopt environmentally friendly behaviours. From the perspective of environmental conflict, this paper will explore the transmission mechanism of environmental conflict on individuals’ pro-environmental behaviour through three experiments.