The Impact of Anthropomorphic Eco-Friendly Logos on Consumers’ Green Purchase Intention: A Moderated Mediation Model

Anthropomorphism is a widely used marketing strategy, yet less is known about how baby-schema anthropomorphic cues embedded in eco-friendly logos function as compact visual identity cues to promote consumers’ green purchase intention through positive emotional attribution. Drawing on baby-schema theory and mental-state attribution, we examine the impact of anthropomorphic eco-friendly logos on green purchase intention, the mediating roles of perceived love and perceived hope, their sequential pathway, and the moderating effect of environmental attitude. A within-subjects study was conducted with 299 valid participants in China, using established and adapted scale items for data collection. Our results demonstrated that anthropomorphic eco-friendly logos significantly enhanced green purchase intention. Perceived love and perceived hope each mediated this relationship, and the sequential pathway from perceived love to perceived hope was also significant. Moreover, environmental attitude positively moderated the link between anthropomorphic logos and perceived love, with a stronger effect among consumers with higher pro-environmental attitudes. These findings highlight a positive emotional attribution mechanism through which anthropomorphic eco-friendly logo cues promote green consumption and clarify the boundary role of environmental attitude.