Abstract: Visual elements are a key input to consumer judgment, shaping what consumers notice, what they infer, and how they act across the stages of purchase, use, and disposal. Yet research on the relationship between visual elements and sustainable consumption remains fragmented, with findings that are often context dependent and sometimes contradictory. In this review, we seek to reconcile this literature by proposing an organizing framework that classifies visual elements relevant to sustainable consumption—such as color, imagery (including spatial position and visual shape), typeface, logos, product form (including size), and material—into two broad categories: graphic cues and structural cues, based on their symbolic meaning and physical function. Building on this framework, we systematically review how these two types of cues influence sustainable consumption behaviors, including green purchasing, sustainable use, and circular disposal. To integrate the mechanisms through which different cues influence sustainable consumption, this review draws on the desirability and feasibility framework of sustainable consumption decision-making and develops an explanatory framework centered on two dimensions: value-meaning evaluation and implementation-feasibility judgments. Specifically, graphic cues primarily influence sustainable consumption through the desirability pathway, with mechanisms such as conceptual metaphor and cognitive schema providing strong explanatory leverage. By contrast, structural cues primarily operate through the feasibility pathway, with affordance and automatic categorization serving as key explanatory mechanisms. In addition, the effectiveness of visual cues is shaped by moderators at the individual, product, and environmental levels. We conclude by outlining directions for future research, including comparing the relative effects of graphic and structural cues, extending the classification of visual cues, examining a broader range of sustainable consumption behaviors, and advancing research on multisensory integration in digital contexts and interactive media.

Key words: visual cues, green purchase, sustainable use, circular disposal