 Victim or beggar? Anthropomorphic messengers and the savior effect in consumer sustainability behaviorSeth Ketron and Kelly Naletelich Journal of Business Research, 2019, vol. 96, issue C, 73-84 Abstract: Literature regarding the effect of anthropomorphism on sustainability behaviors is contradictory, which suggests that that anthropomorphism is contextually sensitive. The current study seeks to add clarity to this domain by assessing the role of anthropomorphism on consumer sustainability behavior. Three experimental studies demonstrate that anthropomorphic cues (especially sad faces) activate a savior effect, which occurs when an anthropomorphic messenger is viewed as a victim and evokes feelings of sympathy. In turn, sympathy leads to enhanced sustainability behavior to save the victim from harm. However, when the desired sustainability behavior costs the consumer, this effect is suppressed – in such cases, the anthropomorphic messenger shifts from threatened victim to marketing agent, which reduces sympathy toward the messenger. Thus, companies seeking to promote sustainable behaviors and preferences for sustainable products could use anthropomorphism but only when the behavior does not result in additional payment to the organization. Keywords: Anthropomorphism; Sustainability; Sympathy; Persuasion (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:96:y:2019:i:c:p:73-84 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.11.004 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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.