 The effect of severe imagery in advertising on charitable behavior and the moderating role of social closenessBilly Sung, Felix Septianto and Michelle Stankovic Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2023, vol. 57, issue 3, 1352-1376 Abstract: The present paper systematically investigated the effectiveness of utilizing severe or disgusting, imagery, and the moderating effect of social closeness within non‐profit health charity advertising appeals. Across three experiments, we found an interaction effect, whereby donations increased when severe images were shown, but only when high social closeness was also highlighted. Conversely, severe imagery reduced donations in the low social closeness condition, when participants were not prompted to think of their family. Despite the popularity of using severe imagery within charity advertising, our findings suggest that severe images should be used with caution in health charity marketing. Investigating the underlying mechanisms, we found that empathy (disgust) underlies the increase (decrease) of donation when severe imagery was used in a high (low) social closeness condition. Furthermore, we ruled out anger and perceived responsibility as competing moderators for these effects to verify whether other positive and negative emotions had similar effects. Date: 2023 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:57:y:2023:i:3:p:1352-1376 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Journal of Consumer Affairs is currently edited by Sharon Tennyson More articles in Journal of Consumer Affairs from Wiley Blackwell |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.