Digital Cues Boost Refillable Packaging Adoption Through Framing and Social Endorsement

Despite refillable packaging emerging as a crucial strategy for mitigating plastic waste in daily consumption, its adoption rate remains persistently low even among environmentally conscious consumers. This gap in consumer behavior suggests that environmental awareness alone is insufficient to drive systemic change. To address this, researchers investigated how two distinct features of digital communication—specifically, explicit versus subtle sustainability framing and the presence of visible social endorsement cues, such as like counts—influence consumer intentions to adopt refillable packaging. Drawing upon message-framing theory and the principles of social endorsement, the study sought to uncover the cognitive mechanisms by which these digital signals shape consumer perceptions and subsequent behavioral intentions.

A robust 2 (sustainability framing: explicit vs. subtle) × 2 (visible like count: present vs. absent) × 2 (product category: personal care vs. household cleaning) between-subjects experiment was executed, involving 772 Iranian consumers. Participants interacted with brand-neutral, Instagram-style digital posts designed to highlight refillable packaging. The study employed advanced statistical methods, including factorial analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), to dissect the complex interplay between the digital cues and consumer psychology. The findings revealed that both explicit sustainability framing and the visibility of like-count cues independently contributed to increased behavioral intention among consumers.

Further structural equation modeling provided insight into the underlying cognitive processes driving these effects. For sustainability framing, the increase in behavioral intention was partly mediated by perceived sustainability clarity. Conversely, the influence of visible like-count cues was linked to the enhancement of perceived message credibility. Notably, the combination of explicit sustainability framing and visible social endorsements led to stronger behavioral intentions than either single-cue condition alone. However, the interaction between framing and like-count was not statistically significant, indicating that the cues operate through distinct cognitive pathways rather than a synergistic effect.

The research also explored the broader implications of these cues through sequential analyses, identifying indirect-effect patterns involving attitude toward refillable packaging and general behavioral intention. While the initial findings highlighted the effectiveness of these digital strategies, subsequent multigroup analyses determined that there was no robust moderation by the specific product category, meaning these effects were not uniquely tied to personal care versus household cleaning items. These results provide critical advancements in understanding the nuanced cognitive appraisal patterns associated with digital communication cues, offering a clearer roadmap for how explicit environmental messaging and visible social proof can be leveraged to strengthen intentions for sustainable consumption in social media environments.

Subject of Research: The impact of digital communication cues, such as sustainability framing and social endorsements, on consumer intentions to adopt refillable packaging.

Article Title: Digital cues for refillable packaging adoption: how sustainability framing and visible social endorsement shape consumer intentions

Article References: Hosseini, S. M., & Carfora, V. (2026). Digital cues for refillable packaging adoption: how sustainability framing and visible social endorsement shape consumer intentions. Current Psychology, 45(21), 1661. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-10247-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s12144-026-10247-w

Keywords: refillable packaging, consumer behavior, sustainability framing, social endorsement, digital communication, behavioral intention, consumer psychology, social media marketing, Digital, cues, refillable, packaging