Are guilt appeals a panacea in green advertising?

This research examines guilt appeals in green advertising by clarifying moderating roles of issue proximity and environmental consciousness. Advantageous effects of guilt appeals are produced in two contexts: promoting a highly proximal issue to consumers with weak environmental consciousness or promoting a less proximal issue to those with strong environmental consciousness. Guilt appeals are no more effective than non-guilt appeals when a low-proximity issue is presented to individuals with weak environmental consciousness. Guilt appeals backfire when promoting a high-proximity issue to highly conscious individuals. The implications of these findings are discussed, as are the limitations and directions for future research.

[1]  P. Keller.  Converting the unconverted: the effect of inclination and opportunity to discount health-related fear appeals. , 1999, The Journal of applied psychology.

[2]  Guilt appeals in advertising: what are their effects? , 1995 .

[3]  Robert B. Bechtel,et al.  Environmental Belief Systems , 1999 .

[4]  R. Bennett.  Shame, guilt & responses to non-profit & public sector ads , 1998 .

[5]  Sally Hibbert,et al.  Guilt appeals: persuasion knowledge and charitable giving , 2007 .

[6]  ASSOCIATION ANALYSIS ON PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN MAIN CITIES OF EAST ASIA , 2010 .

[7]  Bruce A. Huhmann,et al.  A Content Analysis of Guilt Appeals in Popular Magazine Advertisements , 1997 .

[8]  Paul Mohai,et al.  Men, women, and the environment: An examination of the gender gap in environmental concern and activism , 1992 .

[9]  A. Kollmuss,et al.  Mind the Gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? , 2002 .

[10]  R. Hill,et al.  Social marketing meets interactive media , 2011 .

[11]  Charles S. Gulas,et al.  Shades of Green: A Multidimensional Analysis of Environmental Advertising , 1995 .

[12]  Ajay K. Manrai,et al.  How green‐claim strength and country disposition affect product evaluation and company image , 1997 .

[13]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[14]  Chun-Tuan Chang,et al.  Framing Charity Advertising: Influences of Message Framing, Image Valence, and Temporal Framing on a Charitable Appeal1 , 2009 .

[15]  Joel J. Davis.  Consumer Response to Corporate Environmental Advertising , 1994 .

[16]  Örjan Wiidegren,et al.  The New Environmental Paradigm and Personal Norms , 1998 .

[17]  R. Dunlap,et al.  Measuring Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm: A Revised NEP Scale , 2000 .

[18]  S. Dickinson,et al.  Understanding the emotional and coping responses of adolescent individuals exposed to threat appeals , 2008 .

[19]  Charles S. Gulas,et al.  An expose on green television ads , 1994 .

[20]  Lauren G. Block.  Self‐Referenced Fear and Guilt Appeals: The Moderating Role of Self‐Construal , 2005 .

[21]  Kathleen Debevec,et al.  Self-Referent Processing in Perceptions of Verbal and Visual Commercial Information , 1992 .

[22]  Patrick Hartmann,et al.  Green advertising revisited , 2009 .

[23]  Chun-Tuan Chang,et al.  Guilt appeals in cause-related marketing , 2011 .

[24]  Carl Obermiller.  The Baby is Sick/The Baby is Well: A Test of Environmental Communication Appeals , 1995 .

[25]  Bobby Banerjee,et al.  How Green Is My Value: Exploring the Relationship Between Environmentalism and Materialism , 1994 .

[26]  D. Jessop,et al.  Fear appeals and binge drinking: a terror management theory perspective. , 2008, British journal of health psychology.

[27]  M. Dunn,et al.  Conducting Marketing Science: The Role of Replication in the Research Process , 2000 .

[28]  C. Leung,et al.  Comparison of Chinese-Australian and Anglo-Australian Environmental Attitudes and Behavior , 2002 .

[29]  James A. Roberts.  Green consumers in the 1990s: Profile and implications for advertising , 1996 .

[30]  R. Dunlap,et al.  THE NEW ENVIRONMENTAL PARADIGM: 5 PROPOSED MEASURING INSTRUMENT AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS , 1978 .

[31]  Muzafer Sherif,et al.  Attitude and Attitude Change: The Social Judgment-Involvement Approach , 1982 .

[32]  Melody E. Schuhwerk,et al.  Green or Non-Green? Does Type of Appeal Matter When Advertising a Green Product? , 1995 .

[33]  András Takács-Sánta.  Barriers to Environmental Concern , 2007 .

[34]  Leslie C Carlson,et al.  Green Advertising and the Reluctant Consumer , 1995 .

[35]  J. Neuliep,et al.  Replication Research in the Social Sciences , 1991 .

[36]  P. Wesley Schultz,et al.  Psychology of Promoting Environmentalism: Promoting Environmentalism , 2000 .

[37]  P. Stern,et al.  Value Orientations, Gender, and Environmental Concern , 1993 .

[38]  A. E. Crowley,et al.  Sex Guilt and Receptivity to Condom Advertising , 1995 .

[39]  Andrzej Furman,et al.  A Note on Environmental Concern in a Developing Country , 1998 .

[40]  Chen-Bo Zhong,et al.  Do Green Products Make Us Better People? , 2009, Psychological science.

[41]  Maris G. Martinsons,et al.  Hong Kong and China: emerging markets for environmental products and technologies , 1997 .

[42]  B. Latané.  The psychology of social impact. , 1981 .

[43]  Sami Alsmadi.  Green Marketing and the Concern over the Environment: Measuring Environmental Consciousness of Jordanian Consumers , 2007 .

[44]  Michael D. Basil,et al.  Guilt appeals: The mediating effect of responsibility , 2006 .

[45]  Seymour Sudman,et al.  Improving the Quality of Shopping Center Sampling , 1980 .

[46]  Bodo B. Schlegelmilch,et al.  The link between green purchasing decisions and measures of environmental consciousness , 1996 .

[47]  Marla R. Stafford,et al.  Predispositions toward Green Issues: The Potential Efficacy of Advertising Appeals , 1996 .

[48]  R. Dunlap,et al.  Environmental Concern , 1981 .

[49]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement , 1983 .

[50]  Douglas R. May,et al.  The Effects of Proximity and Empathy on Ethical Decision-Making: An Exploratory Investigation , 2009 .

[51]  R. Dunlap,et al.  The “New Environmental Paradigm” , 1978 .

[52]  C. Craig,et al.  International Marketing Research , 1983 .

[53]  E. Kubany,et al.  GUILT: ELABORATION OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL MODEL , 2003 .

[54]  Lauren G. Block,et al.  Undoing the Effects of Seizing and Freezing: Decreasing Defensive Processing of Personally Relevant Messages , 2002 .

[55]  Wayne Binney,et al.  Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing , 2010 .

[56]  Nidhi Agrawal,et al.  Emotional Compatibility and the Effectiveness of Antidrinking Messages: A Defensive Processing Perspective on Shame and Guilt , 2010 .

[57]  Tina M. Lowrey,et al.  Buyer Characteristics of the Green Consumer and Their Implications for Advertising Strategy , 1995 .

[58]  Lois A. Mohr,et al.  The Development and Testing of a Measure of Skepticism Toward Environmental Claims in Marketers' Communications , 1998 .

[59]  E. Brunswik.  Systematic and Representative Design of Psychological Experiments. With Results in Physical and Social Perception , 1949 .

[60]  Gunnar Grendstad,et al.  Correlates of Environmental Behaviors , 2001 .

[61]  J. Armstrong,et al.  Replications and Extensions in Marketing - Rarely Published But Quite Contrary , 1994 .

[62]  Leonard Berkowitz,et al.  THE TRADITIONAL SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE PERSONALITY , 1968 .

[63]  P. Ellen,et al.  The Role of Perceived Consumer Effectiveness in Motivating Environmentally Conscious Behaviors , 1991 .

[64]  Clare D'souza,et al.  Green advertising effects on attitude and choice of advertising themes , 2005 .

[65]  J. M. Hines,et al.  Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behavior: A meta-analysis. , 1987 .

[66]  Michael D. Basil,et al.  Guilt and giving: A process model of empathy and efficacy , 2008 .

[67]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , 1957 .

[68]  K. Peattie,et al.  Green marketing: legend, myth, farce or prophesy? , 2005 .

[69]  Rudolf R. Sinkovics,et al.  Can socio-demographics still play a role in profiling green consumers? A review of the evidence and an empirical investigation , 2003 .

[70]  KENNETH C.C. YANG,et al.  How Guilt Level Affects Green Advertising Effectiveness? , 2008 .

[71]  E. Brunswik.  Perception and the Representative Design of Psychological Experiments , 1957 .

[72]  June Cotte,et al.  Enhancing or disrupting guilt: the role of ad credibility and perceived manipulative intent , 2005 .

[73]  Ricky Y. K. Chan.  The effectiveness of environmental advertising: the role of claim type and the source country green image , 2000 .