IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v74y2023ics0969698923001303.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fear appeals and coping appeals for health product promotion: Impulsive purchasing or psychological distancing?

Author

Listed:
  • Fu, Shixuan
  • Zheng, Xiaojiang
  • Wang, Hongpeng
  • Luo, Yunzhong

Abstract

The prevalence of online health communities (OHCs) motivates health product companies to manipulate persuasion-based marketing strategies, including fear appeals and coping appeals, to promote health products. However, whether such a practice is effective remains unclear. Respondents may either impulsively purchase the recommended health products or simply distance themselves psychologically from the information. Building on protection motivation theory (PMT), this study uncovers the mechanisms behind these two coping responses to persuasive messages, namely, the impulsive purchasing and psychological distancing of OHC users. Correspondingly, we evaluated 366 valid questionnaires, and the results reveal that (1) when encountering fear appeals, perceived health threat can evoke cyberchondria, leading to psychological distancing; and (2) when encountering coping appeals, perceived response efficacy leads to product affection, fostering impulsive purchasing. This study provides new insights into the effects of persuasive messages for health product promotion in social commerce. Marketers should design appropriate persuasive messages to foster impulsive purchasing by generating individuals’ product affection and avoiding cyberchondria.

Suggested Citation

  • Fu, Shixuan & Zheng, Xiaojiang & Wang, Hongpeng & Luo, Yunzhong, 2023. "Fear appeals and coping appeals for health product promotion: Impulsive purchasing or psychological distancing?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:74:y:2023:i:c:s0969698923001303
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698923001303
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103383?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Ghazali, Ezlika & Soon, Pat Chen & Mutum, Dilip S. & Nguyen, Bang, 2017. "Health and cosmetics: Investigating consumers’ values for buying organic personal care products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 154-163.
    2. Ogbanufe, Obi & Pavur, Robert, 2022. "Going through the emotions of regret and fear: Revisiting protection motivation for identity theft protection," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    3. Bartikowski, Boris & Laroche, Michel & Richard, Marie-Odile, 2019. "A content analysis of fear appeal advertising in Canada, China, and France," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 232-239.
    4. Badgaiyan, Anant Jyoti & Verma, Anshul, 2015. "Does urge to buy impulsively differ from impulsive buying behaviour? Assessing the impact of situational factors," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 145-157.
    5. Guthrie, Cameron & Fosso-Wamba, Samuel & Arnaud, Jean Brice, 2021. "Online consumer resilience during a pandemic: An exploratory study of e-commerce behavior before, during and after a COVID-19 lockdown," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    6. Jingguo Wang & Yuan Li & H. Raghav Rao, 2017. "Coping Responses in Phishing Detection: An Investigation of Antecedents and Consequences," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 378-396, June.
    7. Nagaraj, Samala, 2021. "Role of consumer health consciousness, food safety & attitude on organic food purchase in emerging market: A serial mediation model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    8. Sabrina Cipolletta & Gabriela Rios Andreghetti & Giovanna Mioni, 2022. "Risk Perception towards COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Synthesis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-25, April.
    9. Kumar, Sushant & Dhir, Amandeep & Talwar, Shalini & Chakraborty, Debarun & Kaur, Puneet, 2021. "What drives brand love for natural products? The moderating role of household size," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    10. Laato, Samuli & Islam, A.K.M. Najmul & Farooq, Ali & Dhir, Amandeep, 2020. "Unusual purchasing behavior during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: The stimulus-organism-response approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    11. Wang, Siqi & Cheah, Jun-Hwa & Lim, Xin-Jean & Leong, Yee Choy & Choo, Wei Chong, 2022. "Thanks COVID-19, I'll reconsider my purchase: Can fear appeal reduce online shopping cart abandonment?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Liu, Yanfeng & Cai, Lanhui & Ma, Fei & Wang, Xueqin, 2023. "Revenge buying after the lockdown: Based on the SOR framework and TPB model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    13. Farah, Maya F. & Ramadan, Zahy B., 2020. "Viability of Amazon’s driven innovations targeting shoppers’ impulsiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    14. Marie A. Yeh & Ann M. Mirabito & Stacey R. Finkelstein, 2021. "Physical risk messaging enhances favorable attitudes toward mask wearing," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 1682-1690, December.
    15. Yang Zhao & Yixuan Li & Ning Wang & Ruoxin Zhou & Xin (Robert) Luo, 2022. "A Meta-Analysis of Online Impulsive Buying and the Moderating Effect of Economic Development Level," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1667-1688, October.
    16. Inkyoung Hur & Karlene C. Cousins & Bernd Carsten Stahl, 2019. "A critical perspective of engagement in online health communities," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 523-548, September.
    17. Xiang, Li & Zheng, Xiabing & Lee, Matthew K.O. & Zhao, Dingtao, 2016. "Exploring consumers’ impulse buying behavior on social commerce platform: The role of parasocial interaction," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 333-347.
    18. Zollo, Lamberto & Carranza, Rocío & Faraoni, Monica & Díaz, Estrella & Martín-Consuegra, David, 2021. "What influences consumers’ intention to purchase organic personal care products? The role of social reassurance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    19. Deng, Fengyi & Jiang, Xia, 2023. "Effects of human versus virtual human influencers on the appearance anxiety of social media users," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Singh, Jaskaran & Singh, Gurbir & Kumar, Satinder & Mathur, Ajeet N., 2021. "Religious influences in unrestrained consumer behaviour," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    21. Casado-Aranda, Luis-Alberto & Sánchez-Fernández, Juan & Ibáñez-Zapata, José-à ngel, 2022. "It is all about our impulsiveness – How consumer impulsiveness modulates neural evaluation of hedonic and utilitarian banners," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    22. Truong, Dothang & Truong, My D., 2022. "How do customers change their purchasing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    23. Eger, Ludvík & Komárková, Lenka & Egerová, Dana & MiÄ Ã­k, Michal, 2021. "The effect of COVID-19 on consumer shopping behaviour: Generational cohort perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    24. Gopalkrishnan R. Iyer & Markus Blut & Sarah Hong Xiao & Dhruv Grewal, 2020. "Impulse buying: a meta-analytic review," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 384-404, May.
    25. Schmidt, Holger J. & Mason, Roger & Steenkamp, Pieter & Mugobo, Virimai, 2017. "Does brand orientation contribute to retailers’ success? An empirical study in the South African market," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 210-222.
    26. Coelho, Filipe & Aniceto, Inês & Bairrada, Cristela Maia & Silva, Pedro, 2023. "Personal values and impulse buying: The mediating role of hedonic shopping motivations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    27. Peschel, Anne O., 2021. "Scarcity signaling in sales promotion: An evolutionary perspective of food choice and weight status," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    28. Omar, Nor Asiah & Nazri, Muhamad Azrin & Ali, Mohd Helmi & Alam, Syed Shah, 2021. "The panic buying behavior of consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining the influences of uncertainty, perceptions of severity, perceptions of scarcity, and anxiety," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    29. Tejaswini Herath & H Raghav Rao, 2009. "Protection motivation and deterrence: a framework for security policy compliance in organisations," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 106-125, April.
    30. Prince Clement Addo & Fang Jiaming & Nora Bakabbey Kulbo & Li Liangqiang, 2020. "COVID-19: fear appeal favoring purchase behavior towards personal protective equipment," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(7-8), pages 471-490, June.
    31. Marie Louise Radanielina Hita & Yany Grégoire & Bruno Lussier & Simon Boissonneault & Christian Vandenberghe & Sylvain Sénécal, 2023. "An extended health belief model for COVID-19: understanding the media-based processes leading to social distancing and panic buying," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 132-152, January.
    32. Moon, Moin Ahmad & Faheem, Shakeeb & Farooq, Amna, 2022. "I, me, and my everything: Self conceptual traits and compulsive buying behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sun, Yuting & Zhang, Jianting & Li, Yixuan, 2024. "Realisation that online advertisements are misleading: Involvement of middle-aged and older adults with botanical dietary supplements," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Di, Kaisheng & Chen, Weidong & Shi, Qiumei & Cai, Quanling & Liu, Sichen, 2024. "Analysing the impact of coupled domestic demand dynamics of green and low-carbon consumption in the market based on SEM-ANN," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Youn, Song-Yi & Ki, Chung-Wha (Chloe) & Ha, Sejin, 2024. "Feeling close from Afar: Public reactions to racial profiling in retail and brand crisis management," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    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. Stanca, Liana & Dabija, Dan-Cristian & Câmpian, Veronica, 2023. "Qualitative analysis of customer behavior in the retail industry during the COVID-19 pandemic: A word-cloud and sentiment analysis approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Fei Huang & Wenqiu Guo, 2023. "Rise of Mental Sub-Health Consumers: Examining the Compulsive Buying Behavior in the Post-COVID-19 Era," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    3. Jiang, Yangyang & Stylos, Nikolaos, 2021. "Triggers of consumers’ enhanced digital engagement and the role of digital technologies in transforming the retail ecosystem during COVID-19 pandemic," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    4. Cheng Liu & Cheuk-Kwan Sun & Yu-Chia Chang & Shang-Yu Yang & Tao Liu & Cheng-Chia Yang, 2021. "The Impact of the Fear of COVID-19 on Purchase Behavior of Dietary Supplements: Integration of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Protection Motivation Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Meng, Jie & Chen, Kai, 2024. "Rethinking preemptive consumption: Building mechanisms of reciprocity, contextuality, and risk hedging across scenarios," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Islam, Tahir & Pitafi, Abdul Hameed & Arya, Vikas & Wang, Ying & Akhtar, Naeem & Mubarik, Shujaat & Xiaobei, Liang, 2021. "Panic buying in the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-country examination," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Agag, Gomaa & Aboul-Dahab, Sameh & Shehawy, Yasser Moustafa & Alamoudi, Hawazen O. & Alharthi, Majed D. & Hassan Abdelmoety, Ziad, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 on the post-pandemic behaviour: The role of mortality threats and religiosity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Liu, Yanfeng & Li, Xue & Yuen, Kum Fai, 2023. "Revenge buying: The role of negative emotions caused by lockdowns," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Truong, Dothang & Truong, My D., 2022. "How do customers change their purchasing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Ashutosh Sarkar & Debadyuti Das & Arindam Debroy, 2024. "Panic Buying, Product Substitution and Channel-Shifting Behaviour During Pandemic," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 25-43, January.
    11. Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih & Fatheya Moustafa, 2022. "Panic Food Purchasing amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Does the Impact of Perceived Severity, Anxiety and Self-Isolation Really Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-16, November.
    12. Jiang, Yi & Wang, Xueqin & Yuen, Kum Fai, 2021. "Augmented reality shopping application usage: The influence of attitude, value, and characteristics of innovation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Siddiqi, Umar Iqbal & Akhtar, Naeem & Islam, Tahir, 2022. "Restaurant hygiene attributes and consumers’ fear of COVID-19: Does psychological distress matter?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Park, Inyoung & Lee, Jieon & Lee, Daeho & Lee, Changjun & Chung, Won Young, 2022. "Changes in consumption patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analyzing the revenge spending motivations of different emotional groups," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Zuokas, Danas & Gul, Evren & Lim, Alvin, 2022. "How did COVID-19 change what people buy: Evidence from a supermarket chain," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    16. Rodríguez-Priego, Nuria & Porcu, Lucia & Prados Peña, María Belén & Crespo Almendros, Esmeralda, 2023. "Perceived customer care and privacy protection behavior: The mediating role of trust in self-disclosure," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. Sejin Ha & Michelle Childs & Christopher T. Sneed & Ann Berry, 2021. "Consumer Sustainable Shopping Practices for Small Business during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    18. Pan, Xiaodan & Dresner, Martin & Li, Guang & Mantin, Benny, 2024. "Stocking up on hand sanitizer: Pandemic lessons for retailers and consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Gigliotti, Marina & Rizzi, Francesco, 2023. "Resilient shopping behaviours by change, not by chance: are disruptive events’ effects permanent?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    20. Daniel, Christopher & Hernandez, Tony, 2024. "What retail apocalypse? A Delphi forecast of commercial space demand in the Toronto region," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    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:joreco:v:74:y:2023:i:c:s0969698923001303. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    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.