The Blame Game in Ethical Fashion: How Moral Reactance, Narcissism, and Ethical Overwhelm Impact Ethical Fashion Consumerism

Three experimental studies were conducted - in a trade fair, at a mall and on Prolific to collect data to study our hypotheses - blame attribution by influencers leads to ethical fashion consumerism (H1). Moral reactance mediates the direct relationship (H2). Narcissism accentuates the direct (H3a) and attenuates the indirect (H3b) effects. Ethical overwhelm attenuates the direct (H4a) and indirect effects (H4b). Same set of stimuli in the form of vignettes and screenshots of influencers' Instagram posts were used for Studies 1 & 2. A different set of stimuli in the form of vignettes and screenshots of influencers' Instagram posts were used for Study 3. Prior to conducting the main studies, two pre-tests were conducted to check the manipulations for blame attribution (Pretest for Study 1 & 3) and ethical overwhelm (Pretest for Study 3).