Guilt appeals: Persuasion knowledge and charitable giving

This paper applies the persuasion knowledge model to explain consumers' responses to charity guilt appeals. With data obtained through a stimuli‐driven survey, the research examines the relationships between knowledge of persuasion tactics and charities, and the level of felt guilt experienced in response to an advertisement and subsequent donation intentions. The findings show that guilt arousal is positively related to donation intention, and that persuasion and agent knowledge impact the extent of guilt aroused. The research confirms that consumers are active rather than passive processors of marketing communications by revealing the role of persuasion and agent knowledge as methods of coping with and informing responses to guilt appeals. Specifically, the research finds that manipulative intent and the respondents' skepticism toward advertising tactics in general are negatively related to guilt arousal but that their affective evaluation and beliefs about a charity are positively related to feelings of guilt. However, it also shows that there is a positive direct relationship between perceived manipulative intent and the intention to donate. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Guilt appeals: The mediating effect of responsibility

This research was conducted to assess how guilt appeals operate in soliciting charitable donations. It was hypothesized that a sense of responsibility would enhance the effectiveness of charitable guilt appeals, thus leading to larger charitable donations. It was also hypothesized that the presence of others would make salient a prosocial norm, thus increasing a sense of responsibility to help. Two laboratory experiments were conducted to test these hypotheses. The effect of guilt on charitable‐donation intention and actual donations was mediated by a sense of responsibility. Additionally, the presence of others enhanced the sense of responsibility to behave prosocially. These findings have implications for the design of charitable‐donation campaigns. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Guilt Appeals and Prosocial Behavior: An Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Anticipatory Versus Reactive Guilt Appeals on the Effectiveness of Blood Donor Appeals

This study investigates the effectiveness of guilt-arousing communication in promoting prosocial behavior. By analyzing the distinct effects of anticipatory versus reactive guilt appeals, we contribute to the discussion of guilt appeals as drivers of prosocial behavior, especially blood donation. Research on persuasive communication provides the theoretical basis of our study and we validate our hypotheses by means of two 2?×?2 factorial between-subjects designs. We find that anticipatory rather than reactive guilt appeals are more effective in generating prosocial action tendencies. Compared to noninformational reference group influences, messages endorsed by members of informational reference groups yielded more favorable attitudinal responses. Besides their significant main effect, two-sided messages reinforce the favorable impact of anticipatory guilt appeals. The study concludes with practical implications for nonprofit organizations and public blood donor services as well as avenues for future research.     

Guilt Regulation: The Relative Effects of Altruistic Versus Egoistic Appeals for Charity Advertising

This article examines how egoistic (versus altruistic) appeals in charity advertising help regulate guilt and result in more favorable ad attitudes and donation intentions. The proposed affect forecasting and regulation model depicts the process by which guilt states are mitigated more effectively by egoistic appeals, because they strengthen the affect forecasting belief that giving to charity leads to happiness. Such enhanced affect forecasting beliefs further improve ad attitudes, which lead to greater donation intentions. This research tests the proposed model by exploring three possible types of guilt: existing guilt (Study 1), integral guilt (Study 2), and incidental guilt (Study 3).     

Guilt appeals in cause-related marketing

Despite the growth of cause-related marketing (CRM), little is known about how consumers process cause-focused messages that contain emotional appeals. The present research seeks to further the understanding of guilt appeals in CRM by clarifying the moderating roles of product type and donation magnitude, and exploring the situations when a guilt appeal backfires. Although experimental results indicate that a guilt appeal is more effective than a non-guilt appeal, a guilt appeal backfires when the perceived hedonic value of a product is high. A high donation magnitude also eliminates CRM effectiveness of the guilt appeal. There is an interaction between guilt appeal and donation magnitude when promoting hedonic products with CRM. The findings underscore the importance for marketers of learning more about how guilt appeals work, and in turn describe how practitioners can avoid negative consumer reactions to their guilt appeals.     

The Role of Beneficiaries’ Group Identity in Determining Successful Appeal Strategies for Charitable Giving

What types of message appeals in charity advertisements are most likely to convince people to donate? Using university rivalry (Studies 1 and 2), nationality (Study 3), and freely chosen groups (Study 4), this research proposes that the beneficiaries’ group identity moderates the relative effectiveness of three benefit foci of message appeals in charity advertisements. The results indicate that other‐benefit appeals produce greater donation intentions than external self‐benefit appeals for in‐group beneficiaries, whereas external self‐benefit appeals produce greater donation intentions than other‐benefit appeals for rival (Studies 1–3), dissociative (Study 4), and neutral (Study 4) out‐group beneficiaries. Emotional‐benefit appeals are more effective than external self‐benefit appeals for in‐group beneficiaries, and are more effective than other‐benefit appeals for neutral out‐group beneficiaries, whereas they are less effective than external self‐benefit appeals for dissociative out‐group beneficiaries (Study 4). Empathy and belief in personal benefits mediate the interaction effect of benefit focus and beneficiary group on donation intentions (Studies 3 and 4). Theoretical and managerial implications of the current findings are discussed.     

The Best I Can Be: How Self‐Accountability Impacts Product Choice in Technology‐Mediated Environments

Technology‐mediated environments are important not only as the location for an increasing proportion of purchases, but also as an even more pervasive part of the purchase journey. While most research into online consumer behavior focuses on attitudes as an antecedent of product choice, this article focuses on an important but hardly explored variable that may be impacted by technology‐mediated environments: self‐accountability. Laboratory experiments suggest that self‐accountability may influence online purchases, but this has not been confirmed in field studies. Furthermore, although this prior work suggests that self‐accountability may impact product choice through the elicitation of guilt, the role of positive emotions has not been explored. Using two surveys with online retailers, this paper (a) shows that in a technology‐mediated environment, self‐accountability influences product choice; (b) proposes and confirms a complementary route for this effect through pride that is stronger than that through guilt; and (c) evidences the relationship between self‐accountability and perceived consumer effectiveness. These results show a clear opportunity for digital marketers to encourage self‐accountability, to thereby elicit pride and not just guilt, and hence to impact consumer decision making in technology‐mediated environments, particularly when choices have sustainability implications.     

内疚广告诉求对消费者道德消费意愿的影响机制研究

基于认知失调理论和心理抗拒理论,通过两个实验探究了企业道德营销中内疚与非内疚诉求影响消费者道德消费意愿的心理作用机制。结果表明,内疚诉求比非内疚诉求更能促进消费者的道德消费意愿,强迫性感受和操纵意图推断发挥了中介作用,且该中介作用受到消费者涉入度的调节。具体而言,低消费者涉入度情境中,相比于非内疚诉求,内疚诉求能够降低消费者的强迫性感受和操纵意图推断,进而增强其道德消费意愿;高消费者涉入度情境中,相比于内疚诉求,非内疚诉求能够降低消费者的强迫性感受和操纵意图推断,进而增强其道德消费意愿。研究结论有助于企业设计道德属性产品的广告策略,有效降低受众心理抗拒反应,提升受众广告体验,进而推动道德消费。     

Adding Regret to Fear Appeals: When the Going Gets Difficult,Regret Gets Action

In accord with Protection Motivation Theory, this article finds fear appeals ineffective at motivating health protection behaviors perceived to be difficult; when task difficulty is high, there is a decrease in perceptions of self‐efficacy and a reduction in health protection behaviors. This research examines a novel way to motivate health protection when task difficulty is salient by adding regret to fear appeals. The inclusion of regret, an emotion that motivates corrective behavioral change, bolsters self‐efficacy and enhances health protection intentions. In fact, even when task difficulty is made salient, self‐efficacy and behavioral intentions remain strong in the fear plus regret condition. Thus, in contrast to straight fear appeals, adding regret to fear appeals results in a reversal effect enhancing self‐efficacy and behavioral intentions when task difficulty is made salient. This research highlights the independence of task difficulty, self‐efficacy, and the role of regret in motivating difficult health protection behaviors.     

Taking Advantage of a Vulnerable Group? Emotional Cues in Ads Targeting Parents

Parents of small children regularly face challenges that are new to them, creating uncertainties and stress that complicate their decision‐making processes. In this vulnerable state, parents may be susceptible to emotional appeals in advertisements in ways that influence their knowledge formation, food choices, and perceptions of self. In this study, we use a combination of content analysis and interviews to examine the use of emotional appeals, particularly guilt and fear, in food ads and how parents respond to them. We find that guilt is more frequently used in ads that target parents than has been shown for other audiences, and that parents often express negative self‐images and coping strategies when viewing them.     

The Impact of Pleasure‐Evoking Colors on the Effectiveness of Threat (Fear) Appeals

Research has established that colors can influence a person's attitude toward an ad. In this article the knowledge about the effects of colors on the perception of ads is linked to a specific type of ads, namely threat appeals. The objective of this study is to examine whether the color used in the background of such a threat appeal can influence its effectiveness. More specifically, the aim is to investigate whether the usage of less or more pleasure‐evoking colors affects threat and efficacy appraisals, evoked fear, and the behavioral intention. Moreover, it is tested whether the impact of the background color on the effectiveness of threat appeals is moderated by the threat level presented in the threat appeal. The findings confirm that the background color does indeed have an impact on its effectiveness. The more pleasing blue color was found to have a more positive impact on the respondents’ feelings of severity and susceptibility than the less appealing yellow. An analysis of the processing patterns subsequently showed that perceived severity has a positive effect on the behavioral intention. This intention is also influenced by the evoked feelings of fear, which are also induced by the respondents’ perceived severity. An interaction effect with threat level indicates that the more appealing background color only increased vulnerability in case of a low threat. Color thus seems to be used more as a peripheral cue to process less involving (low‐threat) messages. In case of a more involving high‐threat message, the processing seems to occur more centrally and less through the color cue. These findings illustrate the importance of color in the design of threat appeals.     

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.     

Pride in my past: Influencing sustainable choices through behavioral recall

Emotional appraisal research has demonstrated that recalling a past behavior and its associated emotions can influence future behavior. However, how such recalled emotions shape sustainable consumer choice has not been examined. This study examines the role of recalled pride and guilt in shaping sustainable purchase intentions and the mediating role of anticipated pride and guilt. A conceptual model is proposed for motivating sustainable purchase intentions through the emotions associated with the behavioral recall. The model is applied in two experiments with online consumers examining purchase intentions of low carbon cars. Recalling feelings of pride associated with a past sustainability‐related behavior increases sustainable purchase intention, as compared with a neutral recall. This effect occurs through the mediation of both anticipated pride at the prospect of a sustainable behavior choice and anticipated guilt if the future choice is not sustainable. Similar hypotheses relating to recalled guilt at past unsustainable behavior were not supported. The study contributes to research on sustainable consumption, revealing an emotional route by which past behavior can influence future behavior. It also adds to emotional appraisal research by showing the role of specific self‐conscious emotions in forming this route, as prior research has focused more broadly on emotional valence.     

The Role of Perceived University Support in the Formation of Students' Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurship education is central to student entrepreneurship. Previous research has attempted to understand the role of entrepreneurship education in the formation of students' entrepreneurial intention and behavior, albeit in an isolated manner. Universities can support entrepreneurship in many ways, but it is important to measure students' perception of the support that they receive in order to understand the extent of such support and its impact on students. The current study proposed and tested an integrative, multiperspective framework. We have hypothesized that the three dimensions of university support, that is, perceived educational support, concept development support, and business development support, together with institutional support, shape students' entrepreneurial self‐efficacy. In turn, entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and individual motivations constitute the fundamental elements of the intention to start a business. A sample of 805 university students took part in the study and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our findings showed that perceived educational support exerted the highest influence on entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, followed by concept development support, business development support, and institutional support. Self‐efficacy in turn had a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. Individual motivations such as self‐realization, recognition, and role had an additional impact on intention. However, intention was not related to financial success, innovation, and independence. The findings suggest that a holistic perspective provides a more meaningful understanding of the role of perceived university support in the formation of students' entrepreneurial intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Behavioural factors in young people's fruit consumption

This study aims to find out the determinant factors affecting fruit consumption behaviour in Portuguese young people, based on the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) model, and determine if this model explains differences according to gender, age and rural/urban environments. This research is innovative because it tests the HAPA model with young people, and because it adds social support to the HAPA model as an extra predictor of young people's behaviour. To gather the data, a questionnaire survey was applied in two public schools, one in a rural area and the other in a city. The survey was answered by 266 Portuguese young people, aged 15–21 years, from the 10th to the 12th grades. Authorization for the survey was given in advance, from the Ministry of Education, schools and parents, after which the survey was performed. Before applying the questionnaire, two pre‐tests were carried out, each with ten participants and with similar characteristics to the population studied. This study analyses action self‐efficacy, outcome expectancies, action planning, risk perception, intention, maintenance self‐efficacy and social support variables. The result was obtained through a two‐step process, by determining the measurement and structural model, using Smart PLS 2.0. The results show that young females have more factors determining fruit consumption, with greater social support for action self‐efficacy, greater maintenance self‐efficacy through action self‐efficacy, and greater perception of risk regarding fruit consumption. In terms of age, young people over 16 years present greater outcome expectations for the intention, greater perception of risk and action self‐efficacy for fruit consumption. The multi‐group analysis referring to differences between young people living in rural or urban environments did not show proof of the model giving a better explanation of one situation or the other. It can be concluded that the HAPA model is appropriate to the investigation of behaviour factors that influence young people's fruit consumption. The results also indicate that in the scope of the behaviour analysed the proposed model gives a better explanation for females and for those over 16 years.     

Exploring the role of goal theory in understanding training motivation

A model to test conceptions from goal theory within an existing framework of training motivation was developed and tested with employees participating in training in a non‐profit organization. It was hypothesized that goal orientation ('distal factors’) along with self‐efficacy, expectancy and valence (‘proximal factors’) would predict goal intentions as well as training outcomes such as affective responses to training, perceptions of training utility and intention to transfer or use the training provided. Results revealed that goal orientation predicted a significant proportion of variance in the proximal antecedents (valence (33 per cent), expectancy (39 per cent) and self‐efficacy (31 per cent)) whereas the proximal antecedents explained 43 per cent of the variance in goal intentions. In turn, goal intentions were related to training outcomes (affect (b = 0.7), utility (b = 0.6) and transfer intention (b = 0.5)). Goal intentions mediated the relationship between proximal antecedents and training outcomes, providing evidence that goal intentions play a pivotal role in the causal path from proximal factors to training outcomes. Valence alone was found to be a significant mediator of the relationship between goal orientation and goal intentions.     

Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing

This paper presents the results from a qualitative study of income support recipients with regard to how they feel about advertising which overtly appeals to their sense of fear, guilt and shame. The motivation of the study was to provide formative research for a social marketing campaign designed to increase compliance with income reporting requirements. This study shows that negative appeals with this group of people are more likely to invoke self-protection and inaction rather than an active response such as volunteering to comply. Social marketers need to consider the use of fear, guilt and shame to gain voluntary compliance as the study suggests an overuse of these negative appeals. While more formative research is required, the future research direction aim would be to develop an instrument to measure the impact of shame on pro-social decision-making; particularly in the context of close social networks rather than the wider society.     

Opposites attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness of emotional charity appeals

The present work utilizes research on context effects and color psychology to investigate how background color can enhance the effectiveness of positive and negative charity appeals. Five experiments measuring both actual donations and donation intention examine the hypothesis that a negative charity appeal against an orange (vs. blue) background and a positive charity appeal against a blue (vs. orange) background will increase donations. We propose that this is because blue and orange colors are incongruous with positive and negative charity appeals, respectively, due to the affective valences of the appeals and the perceptions of warmth and coldness cued by the background colors. This incongruity enhances the attention people pay to the charity appeals, thereby strengthening their emotional response to the appeals, which increases charitable donations. When attention is manipulated, people who pay a high (vs. low) level of attention to the charity appeal are more likely to donate regardless of the color and valence of the appeal, suggesting attention is an important antecedent to the intensity of the emotional response and subsequent donation behavior. We also identify affect diagnosticity as a boundary condition for the effect – when people are informed that color affects their emotions, the contextual effect of color disappears.     

Empathy with influencers? The impact of the sensory advertising experience on user behavioral responses

Short-form video influencer advertising offers new opportunities for user sensory experience to promote advertising effectiveness and induce positive user responses. This unique means of influencer-generated advertising via short-form videos has not yet been investigated. This study builds on the reciprocity norm of social exchange theory to investigate relationships among ad sensory stimuli (i.e., the sensory advertising experience), the efficacy of influencer advertising (i.e., empathy and altruistic motive), and user behavioral responses (i.e., ad avoidance intention, ad engagement, and purchase intention). It also seeks to shed light on the critical role of perceived influencer effort in these relationships. An empirical study using data from TikTok (Douyin) users and results indicate that sensory advertising experience positively affects user behavioral responses through the serial mediation of empathy and altruistic motive. Additionally, perceived influencer effort is found to be a crucial moderator of the effect of sensory advertising experience on user empathy, which further influences user behavioral responses. The findings provide insight into the persuasion effect and mechanism of short-form video influencer advertising and offer suggestions for advertising campaign designers.     

The Effects of Guilt-Appeal Intensity on Persuasive and Emotional Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Sponsor Motive

Studies examining the persuasive effects of guilt appeals have yielded mixed results. The current study hypothesizes that source motive (profit versus not for profit) is a key moderating variable underlying these inconsistences. A controlled experiment tested the moderating role of sponsor motive on the relationship between guilt-appeal intensity and persuasiveness of the appeal and ad liking. Findings confirmed the notion that sponsor motive moderates the effects of guilt appeals: When guilt appeals are commercially oriented there is a relative failure of high-intensity guilt appeals compared to moderate-intensity guilt appeals. Moderate-intensity guilt appeals cause more-positive brand attitudes than high-intensity appeals. Yet, when guilt appeals are nonprofit, increases in intensity of guilt communicated lead to positive results. As the guilt-intensity increased, ad liking and persuasiveness increased. It appears that guilt-appeal intensity did not have an effect on brand attitudes when the message was nonprofit.