IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v63y2010i2p140-146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing

Author

Listed:
  • Brennan, Linda
  • Binney, Wayne

Abstract

This paper presents the results from a qualitative study of income support recipients with regard to how they feel about advertising which overtly appeals to their sense of fear, guilt and shame. The motivation of the study was to provide formative research for a social marketing campaign designed to increase compliance with income reporting requirements. This study shows that negative appeals with this group of people are more likely to invoke self-protection and inaction rather than an active response such as volunteering to comply. Social marketers need to consider the use of fear, guilt and shame to gain voluntary compliance as the study suggests an overuse of these negative appeals. While more formative research is required, the future research direction aim would be to develop an instrument to measure the impact of shame on pro-social decision-making; particularly in the context of close social networks rather than the wider society.

Suggested Citation

  • Brennan, Linda & Binney, Wayne, 2010. "Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 140-146, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:63:y:2010:i:2:p:140-146
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148-2963(09)00030-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bearden, William O & Rose, Randall L, 1990. "Attention to Social Comparison Information: An Individual Difference Factor Affecting Consumer Conformity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(4), pages 461-471, March.
    2. Spiggle, Susan, 1994. "Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 491-503, December.
    3. Chebat, Jean-Charles & Slusarczyk, Witold, 2005. "How emotions mediate the effects of perceived justice on loyalty in service recovery situations: an empirical study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 664-673, May.
    4. Holbrook, Morris B & Batra, Rajeev, 1987. "Assessing the Role of Emotions as Mediators of Consumer Responses to Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 404-420, December.
    5. Cotte, June & Coulter, Robin A. & Moore, Melissa, 2005. "Enhancing or disrupting guilt: the role of ad credibility and perceived manipulative intent," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 361-368, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saintives, Camille, 2020. "Guilt online vs. offline: What are its consequences on consumer behavior?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    2. Manthiou, Aikaterini & Hickman, Ellie & Klaus, Phil, 2020. "Beyond good and bad: Challenging the suggested role of emotions in customer experience (CX) research," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Frauke Sander & Ulrich Föhl & Nadine Walter & Vera Demmer, 2021. "Green or social? An analysis of environmental and social sustainability advertising and its impact on brand personality, credibility and attitude," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(4), pages 429-445, July.
    4. Giana M. Eckhardt & Susan Dobscha, 2019. "The Consumer Experience of Responsibilization: The Case of Panera Cares," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 651-663, October.
    5. Zielke, Stephan, 2014. "Shopping in discount stores: The role of price-related attributions, emotions and value perception," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 327-338.
    6. Daly, Bonita A. & Schuler, Drue K., 1998. "Redefining a certified public accounting firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 549-567.
    7. Nicoletta Buratti & Francesco Derchi & Giorgia Profumo, 2015. "The blurred boundary between empowered and working consumers: insights from the winner taco case," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(4), pages 133-156.
    8. repec:oup:jecgeo:v:50:y:2023:i:2:p:282-302. is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Sirieix, Lucie & Lála, Jan & Kocmanová, Klára, 2017. "Understanding the antecedents of consumers' attitudes towards doggy bags in restaurants: Concern about food waste, culture, norms and emotions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 153-158.
    10. Garaus, Marion & Hudáková, Melánia, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourists’ air travel intentions: The role of perceived health risk and trust in the airline," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    11. Jong-Woo Jun & Jun-Hyuk Cho & Ji-Hoon Lee, 2021. "Why Do Koreans Love Ethnic Players in the MLB? A Focus on Ethnic Identity and Player Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-10, November.
    12. Katja H. Brunk & Cara Boer, 2020. "How do Consumers Reconcile Positive and Negative CSR-Related Information to Form an Ethical Brand Perception? A Mixed Method Inquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 443-458, January.
    13. Zhou, Yuanyuan & Tsang, Alex S.L. & Huang, Minxue & Zhou, Nan, 2014. "Does delaying service-failure resolution ever make sense?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 159-166.
    14. Marijn Sax & Natali Helberger & Nadine Bol, 2018. "Health as a Means Towards Profitable Ends: mHealth Apps, User Autonomy, and Unfair Commercial Practices," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 103-134, June.
    15. Zou, Lili Wenli & Chan, Ricky Y.K., 2019. "Why and when do consumers perform green behaviors? An examination of regulatory focus and ethical ideology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 113-127.
    16. Kalamas, Maria & Laroche, Michel & Makdessian, Lucy, 2008. "Reaching the boiling point: Consumers' negative affective reactions to firm-attributed service failures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 813-824, August.
    17. Tom Joerß & Payam Akbar & Robert Mai & Stefan Hoffmann, 2017. "Conceptualizing sustainability from a consumer perspective [Konzeptionalisierung der Nachhaltigkeit aus der Konsumentensicht]," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 15-23, June.
    18. Veronica Devenin & Constanza Bianchi, 2018. "Soccer fields? What for? Effectiveness of corporate social responsibility initiatives in the mining industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 866-879, September.
    19. Monica C. LaBarge & Martin Pyle, 2020. "Staying in “the works of living”: How older adults employ marketplace resources to age successfully," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 742-774, June.
    20. Daisy Bertrand & Pierre-Yves Léo & Jean Philippe, 2019. "The New Go-Between Services: Peer-To-Peer Sharing Platforms In Hospitality Services," Post-Print hal-02299130, HAL.
    21. Cairns, George & Wright, George & Fairbrother, Peter & Phillips, Richard, 2017. "‘Branching scenarios’ seeking articulated action for regional regeneration – A case study of limited success," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 189-202.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:63:y:2010:i:2:p:140-146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.