Effects of Responsibility Appeals for Pro-Environmental Ads

When Do They Empower or Generate Reactance

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21192533
AutoresChingching Chang (0000-0003-0551-3190, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen15
Número4
Páginas546-569
Fecha de publicación2021-05-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironmental Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1752-4032 • E-ISSN: 1752-4040
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17524032.2021.1876132
OpenAlexW3122073961
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas60

This study compares information campaign messages that appeal to personal responsibility versus those that do not, in attempts to promote efforts to reduce the threat of global warming. In two scenarios, self-efficacy moderates the effects of responsibility appeals on behavioral intentions through perceived consumer effectiveness and self-accountability, but with different patterns, such that the appeals might empower people or else trigger their reactance. In the first scenario (Studies 1 and 3), people are induced to believe that the messages are credible, and responsibility appeals empower participants; behaviors associated with high self-efficacy, but not low self-efficacy, increase the effects of responsibility appeals relative to non-responsibility appeals. In a second scenario, without cues signaling strong credibility, such as when identifiable sources are not present (Study 2) or are not highly credible (Study 3), responsibility appeals trigger reactance; behaviors associated with low/high self-efficacy decrease/increase the effects of responsibility appeals

Accountability · Appeal · Credibility · Fear appeal · Moral responsibility · Political science · Public relations · Reactance · Social responsibility · Source credibility · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Engineering · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology