Is AI Use Intensity Associated With Consumers' Pro-Climate Intentions? The Roles of Climate Anxiety, Climate Commitment, and Awareness of AI's Environmental Impact
Journal
International Journal of Consumer Studies
ISSN
1470-6423
Publisher
Wiley
Date Issued
2026
Author(s)
Apaolaza, Vanessa
Eletxigerra, Ainhize
Hartmann, Patrick
Type
text::journal::journal article
Abstract
As artificial intelligence (AI) use becomes an everyday consumption practice, its environmental and psychological implications require greater attention. Unlike prior research that primarily treats AI as a tool for enabling sustainable choices, this study proposes a theoretical framework that draws on moral self-regulation, climate psychology, and norm activation theory to explain how the intensity of consuming AI services is associated with consumers' pro-climate intentions through the sequential mediating influences of climate anxiety and climate commitment. The framework was tested with a preregistered survey of a quota-based online sample of U.S. adult AI users (N = 845), using moderated serial mediation models with bootstrapped confidence intervals. AI use intensity is positively associated with pro-climate intentions. This relationship is partially explained by a sequential pathway in which climate anxiety is associated with stronger climate commitment and, in turn, with stronger pro-climate intentions. Furthermore, awareness of AI's environmental impact strengthens the association between use intensity and climate anxiety, and consequently, the sequential indirect association between use intensity and pro-climate intentions. The study contributes to sustainable consumption research by conceptualizing intensive AI use as an everyday consumption practice that can acquire environmental salience. It identifies an affective-to-motivational mechanism linking this practice to pro-climate intentions concerning carbon-footprint reduction, sustainable lifestyles, environmentally friendly purchasing, carbon offsetting, and green electricity choice. The findings imply that disclosure of AI's energy, carbon, and water footprints, paired with credible and feasible action options, can help AI service providers, policymakers, and consumer-facing organizations engage intensive AI users as a receptive audience for sustainable consumption. © 2026 The Author(s). International Journal of Consumer Studies published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
License
Acceso Abierto
How to cite
Apaolaza, V., Paredes, M. R., Eletxigerra, A., & Hartmann, P. (2026). Is <scp>AI</scp> Use Intensity Associated With Consumers’ Pro‐Climate Intentions? The Roles of Climate Anxiety, Climate Commitment, and Awareness of <scp>AI</scp> ’s Environmental Impact. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 50(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.70248