Does your left hand know what your right hand is doing? Impacts of athletes’ pre-transgression philanthropic behavior on consumer post-transgression evaluation

•Pre-transgression athlete philanthropy mitigates negative impact of the transgression on consumer responses.•The deeper commitment to charitable behavior leads to better protection compared to the simple support for a cause.•Higher fit between a transgressed athlete and a cause results in more negative consumer responses due to consumer skepticism.Despite the importance of an athlete’s image and reputation as an individual brand, the academic literature lacks investigations on whether and how an athlete’s brand can be protected when they engage in unethical transgressions. Focusing on athletes’ pro-social activities, the authors presented an experimental study to test how an athlete’s pro-social efforts can alleviate negative impacts from his/her transgression. In particular, the authors test the impacts of athletes’ involvement level (high vs. low) with a pro-social cause and level of fit between an athlete and a cause (high vs. low) on sport consumers’ perceptions. Results demonstrate that an athlete’s pre-scandal charitable behaviors can mitigate adverse impact of a transgression on consumer response only when the athlete has deeply engaged in charitable behaviors. The results also show that a higher fit between an athlete and a cause can generate more severe damaging impacts on consumer evaluation than a lower fit due to consumer skepticism caused by a combination between a negative reputation and a high-fit cause.