Death imagery in antipoaching advertising

In three studies, death imagery and regulatory focus are examined for their effects in wildlife protection campaigns. Images of death are found to lead to positive intentions to conserve wildlife through fear, but only when ads are prevention-focused rather than promotion-focused. In Study 1, participants who view an image of a dead elephant indicate feeling fear and stronger intentions to conserve wildlife. In Study 2, participants who view a prevention-focused ad depicting a dead rhino indicate stronger intentions to sign a wildlife conservation pledge, but the effect is attenuated when the ad is promotion-focused. Study 3 finds similar results using the image of a dead tiger. Theoretical insights and practical implications are discussed.     

Shame‐Free Guilt Appeals: Testing the Emotional and Cognitive Effects of Shame and Guilt Appeals

Although many health communication researchers use the terms “shame” and “guilt” interchangeably, arguably these constructs are distinct and have widely divergent psychological consequences. The purpose of this study was to explore distinct cognitive and emotional outcomes resulting from shame relative to guilt appeals. Specifically, this paper provides empirical evidence that negative outcomes such as anger and perceived manipulative intent are more likely to be associated with shame than guilt. Using an experimental design, participants were randomly assigned to view either a shame or a guilt appeal about getting tested for STDs and completed an online questionnaire. Shame was correlated with both anger and perceived manipulative intent whereas guilt was not. Participants who viewed the shame appeal reported higher levels of shame, anger, and perceived manipulative intent. Tactics for creating shame‐free guilt appeals and future research are discussed.     

Guilt, Shame, and Reparative Behavior: The Effect of Psychological Proximity

Research has paid scant attention to reparative behavior to compensate for unintended wrongdoing or to the role of emotions in doing the right thing. We propose a new approach to investigating reparative behavior by looking at moral emotions and psychological proximity. In this study, we compare the effects of moral emotions (guilt and shame) on the level of compensation for financial harm. We also investigate the role of transgressors’ perceived psychological proximity to the victims of wrongdoing. Our hypotheses were tested through a scenario based questionnaire on a sample of 261 participants. Analyses indicate that (1) guilt has a stronger effect on the level of compensation than shame; (2) psychological proximity influences the level of guilt, shame, and compensation; and (3) shame interacts with psychological proximity to predict compensation, whereas guilt mediates the relationship between psychological proximity and compensation.     

Transformative and restorative consumption behaviors following attachment trauma

This study presents a model of how consumers respond to an attachment trauma for which they feel a substantial degree of personal responsibility. The model is derived from an analysis of the lived experiences, stories, and observations of divorced single mothers, who have experienced an attachment trauma as a consequence of a marriage break down. The trauma involves a dramatic loss of normalcy and certainty, accompanied by negative emotions, such as fear and uncertainty, stress and grief, self‐castigation, guilt and shame, and rumination and depression. In an effort to recover from the trauma and return to healthier emotional states, consumers adopt amelioration strategies characterized by self‐compassion, self‐care, and the (re)building of self‐capabilities. Consumption practices—restorative and transformative in nature—facilitate each strategy, as consumers strive to regain the confidence, sense of control, and equilibrium destroyed by the trauma. The model arguably provides a useful lens to understand other kinds of traumatic events where a sense of heightened personal responsibility prevails.     

Investigating the impact of guilt and shame proneness on consumer ethics: a cross national study

Studies show that emotions of guilt and shame significantly influence how people live their daily lives when it comes to making ethical decisions. Nonetheless, individuals’ proneness toward guilt and shame has received limited attention in consumer behaviour literature. The study focuses on the impact of anticipated emotions (i.e. guilt and shame) on various consumers’ ethical and unethical behaviours. Using a combination of a panel data sample and a university sample, the overall results between the two countries (i.e. Australia and Indonesia) reveal more similarities than differences. Consumers with high guilt‐proneness are less likely to agree on those unethical behaviours. This study has important theoretical implications for understanding the similarities and differences between both nations and the impact of guilt and shame proneness on consumer ethics.     

The moderating influence of ad framing for ad–self‐congruency effects

Prior research indicates that ad–self‐congruency effects are significant only when participants are not motivated to process ad messages, as when they are in a positive rather than negative affective state (Chang, 2002a). In line with this reasoning, it was expected that ad tactics such as ad framing that can evoke emotional responses would determine reliance on ad–self‐congruency for making judgments. As expected, when positive emotions were evoked by positive ad framing, participants formed brand evaluations based on ad–self‐congruency, generating more positive responses to self‐congruent ad messages than to self‐incongruent messages. In contrast, when negative emotions were elicited by negative ad framing, responses to self‐congruent ad messages and self‐incongruent messages were not significantly different. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Shopping in discount stores: The role of price-related attributions,emotions and value perception

This paper analyzes the impact of price-related attributions, emotions and value perception on the intention to shop at grocery discounters in an integrated framework. Moderating effects of price consciousness are also analyzed. The results show that the proposed model explains almost three quarters of intentions to shop in discount stores. Value perception has the strongest total effect, which is partly mediated by enjoyment, shame and guilt. Attributions influence the shopping intention indirectly via value perception and emotions. The inferior quality attribution has the strongest total effect, followed by the efficiency of the business model attribution. The unfairness to stakeholders and the tricks in price communication attribution mostly influence the shopping intention for less price-conscious customers.     

Gratitude,delight, or guilt: The role of consumers' emotions in predicting postconsumption behaviors

This study investigates the relationships among appraisals (goal congruence/incongruence and agency), consumption emotions (gratitude, happiness, guilt, anger, pride, and sadness), and post‐consumption behaviors (positive and negative word of mouth, repurchase intention, and complaint behavior). The findings demonstrate that these emotions predict different specific types of post‐consumption behaviors and that they are elicited by appraisals specified in the psychology literature. In particular, gratitude but not happiness, predicts repurchase intention and positive word of mouth. By contrast, guilt inhibits complaint behaviors and negative word of mouth. The implications of these findings for marketing practice are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How anticipated pride and guilt influence green consumption in the Middle East: The moderating role of environmental consciousness

This research empirically tests the combined effect of anticipated pride, anticipated guilt, and environmental consciousness in parallel to the Theory of Planned Behavior's main components on green purchase intention. For the first time, it also explores the interaction of environmental consciousness, anticipated pride, anticipated guilt, and attitude, respectively, on green purchase intention. Analysis of 304 responses collected from consumers in the United Arab Emirates revealed that environmental consciousness, attitude towards green products, anticipated pride, and anticipated guilt positively influence the intention to purchase green products, but not perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. Interestingly, anticipated pride increases green purchase intention under low level of environmental consciousness, while anticipated guilt decreases purchase intention. In contrast, anticipated guilt positively influences green purchase intention under high environmental consciousness, while anticipated pride does not. This study extends current knowledge related to green purchase behavior and provides a nuanced understanding of the influence of anticipated emotions. It also provides practical implications for marketers in the Middle East to formulate effective strategies to stimulate green products consumption.     

Effectiveness of promotional premiums: The moderating role of affective state in different contexts

This research explores the influence of affective state on ad and product judgments for advertising that features promotional offers of high and low price value. Consistent with expectations, Study 1 found that for happy participants, high‐price value premiums generated higher ad believability ratings, which in turn enhanced ad and brand attitudes. For sad participants, however, the positive effects of high‐price value premiums were attenuated due to message believability discounting. It is proposed that the moderating influence of affective state on responses to ads featuring premiums should be more likely to emerge when attention to premiums is high, as in situations where ads feature less important product attributes or when consumers plan to purchase a product. Study 2 found that the interaction between affective state and premium value was significant when ads featured less important product attributes, but not when they featured important product attributes. Study 3 found that the interaction was significant for participants who intended to purchase the product in the near future, but not for those who did not have purchase intentions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An examination of the emotions that follow a failure of co-creation

Service research has contributed to our understanding of the externally-directed emotions that customers experience, such as anger. However, there is limited knowledge about the self-directed emotions that customers experience, such as shame and guilt. This knowledge is specifically lacking within the context of failure of co-created products and services. Our mixed-method research delineates the self-directed emotions that arise when co-created products and services fail. We found that failure of co-created products differ from general situations of failure in that externally-directed emotions attain latency and customers experience self-directed emotions such as guilt, shame, and self-pity. We also found that the self-directed emotions are driven by (a), sadness, and (b), the nature of the causal attributions that the customers ascribe to the failure. This effect was moderated by the degree of co-creation. After analyzing our findings, we discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of the study.     

Relax Your Fear—The role of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) in green advertising

As a novel approach in green advertising, the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), which induces relaxation and pleasure, is expected to relieve the excessive negativity caused by a negative environmental message. Drawing from the fear-relief theory, mating attraction strategy, and rational choice theory, this experimental study investigated the effectiveness of embedding ASMR within a negative green ad in controlling viewers' fear. It also explored the effects of ASMR on buying intention between two different perceived-difficulty eco-friendly products. The study involved 240 young adults. The findings reveal that, compared to non-ASMR exposures, interplaying negative appeal with ASMR could significantly decrease young adults' fear. Young male adults experienced lower fear than females when seeing a female ASMR-tist. In contrast, male and female adults' fears were relatively equal when seeing male ASMR-tist in a negative green message. Yet, no direct and indirect effects of lower fear on green buying intention mediated by attitude toward the ad were observed. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical contributions.     

Consumer guilt and green banking services

Banks offer loans to support many projects; however, some of these projects may not give adequate consideration to the environment. Little is known regarding the extent to which banking customers experience guilt when discovering that their bank supports projects that disregard the environment. An experiment with 313 participants was conducted, and the results showed that customers do experience guilt when discovering that their bank supports projects that do not give adequate consideration to the environment. This study found that guilt drives perceived consumer effectiveness and negative word‐of‐mouth regarding banking projects that neglect environmental considerations but not attitudes towards green banking. Negative word of mouth, but not the attitude towards green banking, mediates the effect of perceived consumer effectiveness on the intention to use green banking services. Negative word‐of‐mouth, rather than attitudes towards green banking and its perceived consumer effectiveness, drives the intention to use green banking services. These findings imply that banks need to encourage their customers to perceive that they are eco‐friendly to avoid a significant loss of customers.     

The Effect of Acculturation on Reparative Behavior in Shame and Guilt Cultures

As the number of immigration and their later generations grow in the workforce of more developed Western countries, understanding the processes and consequences of acculturation has gained a new level of importance. An old and re-emerging issue is the morality and reparative behavior in Western versus Eastern cultures, as well as its antecedents and consequences. We examined the effects of acculturation on the perception of psychological proximity, the intensity of moral emotions of shame and guilt, and the degree of compensation to victims of one＇s wrongdoing. Our sample was comprised of a collectivistic group from a shame culture, China, and an acculturated group of Chinese living in a much less collectivistic society of a guilt culture, Canada. Our results indicated that participants＇ perception of psychological proximity to other people and the level of compensation offered to the victims of transgression were significantly different among the two samples. Furthermore, shame and guilt mediated the relationship between perceived psychological proximity and the decision to compensate differently.     

Justifying Deviant Behavior: The Role of Attributions and Moral Emotions

We present two studies investigating the impact of causal perceptions and the moral emotions of anger, shame, and guilt on the justification of deviant workplace behavior. Study 1 tests our conceptual framework using a sample of undergraduate business students; Study 2 examines a population of practicing physicians. Results varied significantly between the two samples, suggesting that individual and contextual factors play an important role in shaping the perceptual and emotional processes by which individuals form reactions to undesirable affective workplace events. Implications of these findings for the study of ethics, emotions, and attributions, as well as for promoting ethical behavior, are discussed.     

The effect of 360-degree rotatable product images on purchase intention

In three experiments, we tested the effectiveness of 360-degree rotatable product images on retail websites. In Study 1, participants reported higher purchase intention in response to a 360-degree rotatable image than a two-dimensional static image. In Study 2, participants who were primed for cognitive busyness by writing about activities that kept them busy (vs. writing about typical daily activities) reported lower purchase intention than in Study 1. In Study 3, we found a similar effect by directly manipulating cognitive busyness: participants memorized long or short number strings while performing a shopping task. Furthermore, sensory vividness fully mediated the effect of 360-degree rotatable images on purchase intention for the less busy participants, not the highly busy participants. Theoretical and practical implications for virtual product presentation are discussed.     

Materialism as an attempt to cope with uncertainty

Three studies tested the hypothesis that people may turn to materialism when they face uncertainties in modern life. Study 1 showed that anomie and self‐doubt are significant predictors of materialistic orientations; other plausible antecedents have less predictive value. In Study 2, participants experiencing chronic self‐doubt showed a higher level of materialism if they were primed to experience doubt and insecurity. In Study 3, participants with chronic perceptions of anomie showed a higher level of materialism if they were primed with the concept of normlessness. Together, these three studies show that some people turn to materialism when they experience uncertainty within the self (self‐doubt) or perceive uncertainty relating to society (anomie). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Integrating emotions in the analysis of retail price images

Most studies on retail price images do not capture the complete domain of this construct because they predominantly measure the cognitive dimensions of price perception. The current paper extends this research by integrating emotions in the analysis of retail price images. Results from an empirical study demonstrate that several price‐related emotions mediate the impact of cognitive price image dimensions on intentions to shop in retail stores. Such effects exist for distress, anger, contempt, shame, and guilt. Furthermore, these emotions have an incremental effect on shopping intentions beyond the mere cognitive price image dimensions. Hence, integrating these emotions in the analysis of retail price images improves the prediction of such intentions considerably. An analysis of direct, indirect, and total effects shows that price‐level perception influences shopping intentions negatively via increased contempt, shame, and guilt, but positively via value for money. Value proves to be a central dimension of a retailer's price image as value influences shopping intentions directly, but also via reduced distress, anger, contempt, shame, and guilt. The results yield important research and management implications, as integrating emotions in the analysis of retail price images extends the understanding of customer reactions to retailers' pricing activities. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Recognizing Native Ads as Advertising: Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences

This study assessed consumers' initial reactions to in‐feed native ads appearing as news content. In particular, it focuses on consumers' recognition of advertising when they realize that content they had thought were news stories had in fact been advertising. Recognition of advertising made consumers infer that advertisers had deliberately manipulated them. Consequently, consumers engaged less with the message, had less positive attitudes toward the brand, and were less likely to purchase and share. The results demonstrated the mechanisms through which the two mediators, manipulative intent and message engagement, lowered brand attitude, purchase intention, and sharing intention. In addition, ad disclosure made more people recognize the ad when they were exposed to it than when it was not disclosed as an ad.     

Exploring Postconsumption Guilt and Pride in the Context of Sustainability

This research explores the feelings of guilt and pride experienced by consumers after a purchase decision that involves issues of environmental and social sustainability. Through a multi‐method design, the authors examine key dimensions that influence the process of emotional appraisal, illustrate the characteristics of appraisals of guilt/pride and investigate the consequences that emotions have on future choices. In this exploratory research, when a purchase decision includes an ethical dilemma, consumers were found to express guilt or pride even when the purchase is not intentional, i.e. forced by circumstances. Moreover, the study explores how emotions experienced after decisions may have a positive influence on the future purchase of sustainable alternatives. Finally, the paper proposes a new model that describes the process of emotional appraisal and reports on a number of dimensions that were found to lead to guilt and pride. The insights presented extend knowledge of two key consumer emotions and present important implications for practitioners promoting ethical products.