Effects of Two Face Regulatory Foci About Ethical Fashion Consumption in a Confucian Context

Journal of Business Ethics · 2025 · Volume 196 · Issue 4

Abstract

Previous studies offer conflicting evidence on whether face consciousness, which is a Confucian cultural value, promotes (or inhibits) the ethical aspects of fashion consumption. Building on the theory of regulatory focus and Confucian virtue ethics, we reconcile this discrepancy by conceptualising face consciousness as two distinct face regulatory foci in Confucian culture, namely, gainingmianziand avoiding losinglian. We argue that in Confucian society, the ethics of fashion consumption are delineated by the Confucian virtues ofrén,yìandlǐ. However, the two face regulatory foci have a dual moderating effect on individuals’ manifestation of these virtues. On the one hand, individuals who seek to gainmianzidesire a consistent social self-image; therefore, they will proactively follow Confucian virtues to adopt ethical fashion. In contrast, individuals who primarily seek to avoid losinglianare less interested in ethical fashion. On the other hand, when the unethical consumption of fashion goods is a group norm, themianzi-oriented group members would behave less ethically and prefer a non-ethical fashion option, but the members who intend to avoid losinglianwould be more likely to support ethical fashion. Our findings reveal how traditional Confucian virtues are linked to the ethics of fashion consumption. We discuss the implications of our findings for ethical fashion production, marketing and consumption practice in a Confucian society.

Keywords

Confucian culture, Confucian virtues, Ethical fashion, Face consciousness, Regulatory focus, Virtue ethics

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