Abstract
Purpose – This study addresses the challenge of encouraging customers to join hotels’ green loyalty programmes (LPs) by examining the impact on customers’ decisions of their trait reactance, anticipated guilt, and the physical attractiveness of service employees.

Design – We conducted three preliminary studies and one main study using scenario-based online surveys targeting Chinese hotel customers. The first two preliminary studies (N1A = 100,N1B = 158) explored the negative emotions (guilt vs. shame) linked to non-participation in green LPs, while the third study (N1C = 110) examined gender’s role in perceived physical attractiveness. The main study (N = 836) tested the three-way interaction effect.

Findings – This analysis confirms that guilt, rather than shame, plays a significant role in the decision-making process for participating in green LPs. The results reveal that trait reactance strongly deters participation intention when customers anticipate low guilt and perceive service employees as less attractive. Notably, higher anticipated guilt renders trait reactance ineffective in influencing intentions, regardless of employees’ attractiveness.

Research implications: Our results reveal that a high level of anticipated guilt is the key to boosting customers’ intention to participate in a hotel’s green LP, which can mitigate the negative impact of customers’ trait reactance.

Originality – This is the first study to demonstrate how anticipated guilt can lessen the negative effects of customers’ trait reactance on their intention to participate in green LPs. Additionally, our findings reveal that guilt not only narrows customers’ attentional focus but also influences how the attractiveness of service employees affects their decision-making processes. Our work introduces a new angle on how emotional responses (anticipated guilt) interact with physical cues (employee attractiveness) in shaping customer decisions concerning the hotel’s green
initiatives.

Keywords: Customer reactance; Anticipated guilt; Physical attractiveness; Attention
narrowing; Green loyalty programmes