Abstract It is of great significance to remove barriers to green purchasing to improve the environmental governance efficiency of the green market. For this purpose, this paper takes the validity of the environmental “fear appeals” as the starting point and explores the formation mechanism of the “desensitization” to green consumption. Based on structural equation modeling and multiple regression model, we carried out an empirical study on a sample of 479 urban adult residents. The results show that media persuasion exerted a positive impact on green purchasing behavior through the perceived seriousness of environmental problems. The perceived seriousness of environmental problems positively impacted green purchasing behavior and played a partial mediated effect between media persuasion and green purchasing behavior. Meanwhile, the mediated effect of the perceived seriousness of environmental problems was negatively moderated by both perceived effectiveness of environmental behavior and switching costs. Moreover, the analysis of urban adults' “desensitization” to green consumption indicates that the formation mechanism of adults' “desensitization” was different from that of the minors. Our conclusions bear certain theoretical and practical significance for the media to correctly use green persuasion strategies and rectify bias in green attitudes and behaviors, as well as for enterprises to conduct green marketing, etc.
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