Heightening of moral identity: The role of mobile prosocial messages and presence

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship between prosocial messages, the degree of presence induced from different message types and the heightening effect of moral identity. A total of 96 students were pre-tested with a moral identity scale and assigned to three experiment groups and one control group. Each of the experiment groups was exposed to a series of prosocial messages designed with different message characteristics daily. After 9 days the participants were subjected to moral identity and presence measures. Overall, presence design is key to heightening moral identity. Prosocial messages heightened moral identity symbolization significantly in two of the experiment groups and as expected, no significant changes occurred in the control group. Picture with text (PT) and narrative text (NT) prosocial messages heightened moral identity symbolization more than short text (ST) prosocial messages. Perceived presence mediates the relation between the pre-moral identity symbolization and post-moral symbolization but not moral internalization.

KEYWORDS:

• Moral identity
• prosocial message
• presence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. Straightlining occurs when survey respondents give identical (or nearly identical) answers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71272126].

Notes on contributors

Tiong-Thye Goh

Tiong-Thye Goh is a senior lecturer in Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Dr Goh’s current research includes social media, emotion computing, classification, education technology, analytics, and user behaviour. Dr Goh’s publications appeared in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Information Systems Education, Electronic Commerce Research, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Journal of Educational Technology & Society.

Xin Dai

Xin Dai is an associate professor of Marketing at the School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Dr Dai obtained his PhD from the same university. His research interests are in social marketing, consumer behaviour, e-commerce and social communication. Dr Dai has won various China National grants, and his work has appeared in many Chinese journals and conferences.

Ian Qiyuan Liu

Ian Qiyuan Liu received his BCom(Hons) from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His research interests include educational technology adoption, cross-cultural moral behaviour, database development and data analytics.

Baotang Wen

Baotang Wen received his Master of Management in Enterprise Management from the School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. His research interests include social marketing, social enterprise and e-commerce.