The Effect of Awe on Willingness to Pay for Construction Waste Recycled Products: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

The development of the construction industry has generated a large amount of construction waste, and resource utilization of construction waste is an effective means of recycling. However, such recycled construction waste products still lack market competitiveness and recognition. Consumers’ psychological activities are often influenced by emotions, and the sense of awe plays an important role in green consumption. This study aims to investigate how the sense of awe affects consumers’ willingness to pay for construction waste recycled products. The study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a willingness-to-pay task paradigm for experiments, which aims to reveal how different types of awe affect willingness to pay for construction waste recycled products. The behavioral results showed that two conditions effectively induced awe and enhanced consumers’ willingness to pay, but the difference between nature awe and social awe was not significant. The neural activation results showed significant activation in the inferior prefrontal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In particular, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity was significantly enhanced in the social awe condition. The functional connectivity results showed that, compared to the control condition experiment, the awe condition experiment triggered stronger functional connectivity. Therefore, exploring the effect of awe on the willingness to pay for construction waste recycled products can provide a basis reference for companies to develop marketing strategies and corporate pricing and promote the promotion and application of construction waste recycled products in the market.