The effects of message framing in CSR advertising on consumers’ emotions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions

ABSTRACT

While recent research on sustainability communication demonstrates the relevance of message framing, research on the effects of message framing on consumers’ emotions is scant. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this paper examines the impact of environmental advertisements (stimuli) on two discrete emotions – hope and guilt – (organism) and how these emotions influence consumers’ behavioral intentions (responses). Relying on the prospect theory, this study focuses on positive (gain) and negative (loss) frames. Study 1 shows that, in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a gain message elicits hope while a loss-message triggers guilt. Study 2 shows that both emotions positively influence consumers’ attitudes toward the cause; however, only hope affects attitude toward the company. Attitudes toward the cause and the company, in turn, influence consumers’ behavioral intentions.

虽然最近关于可持续性传播的研究证明了信息框架的相关性，但关于信息框架对消费者情绪的影响的研究却很少. 利用刺激-有机体反应 (S-O-R) 框架, 本文考察了环境广告 (刺激) 对两种离散情绪——希望和内疚 (有机体) 的影响, 以及这些情绪如何影响消费者的行为意图 (反应). 基于前景理论, 本研究主要关注正 (增益) 和负 (损耗) 帧. 研究1表明, 在企业社会责任 (CSR) 的背景下, 收益信息引发希望, 而损失信息引发内疚. 研究2表明, 两种情绪都会积极影响消费者对原因的态度; 然而, 只有希望会影响人们对公司的态度. 对事业和公司的态度反过来会影响消费者的行为意图.

 

KEYWORDS:

• Message framing
• emotions
• environmental behavior
• experimental design
• stimulus-organism-response framework
• prospect theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is partially financed by Portuguese Funds provided by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal) through project UIDB/04020/2020.