Environmental Threats, Materialism, and ‘Green to be Seen’: Why Consumers Prefer Luxury Green Purchases Over Everyday Environmental Behaviours

ABSTRACT This study examines why environmental threats may channel consumers toward high‐visibility luxury green purchases rather than low‐visibility everyday pro‐environmental behaviour. We analysed a three‐wave panel survey of 998 adults in Taiwan. Respondents were recruited through quota‐based field sampling in department‐store districts across northern, central, and southern Taiwan, and latent growth curve modelling was used to estimate change trajectories over time. Higher baseline death‐related fear and health‐risk awareness predicted steeper growth in materialistic values. Materialistic values, in turn, predicted stronger enhancement motivation over time. Enhancement motivation increased willingness to purchase luxury green products but decreased everyday pro‐environmental behaviour. The study integrates Terror Management Theory and Symbolic Self‐Completion Theory in a longitudinal model and shows a visibility‐based moral‐status pathway through which threat appraisals can produce ‘green to be seen’ consumption while crowding out routine sustainable action. The contribution is context‐bounded to Taiwan and yields practical implications for designing visibility‐with‐accountability interventions.