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Purpose – This study aims to compare the use of disgust and sadness – two negative emotions associated with different appraisals and information processing styles – in charity social marketing appeals. Design/methodology/approach – An experiment (n= 247) examined effects when disgust or sad imagery was used alone versus when images were accompanied by information about the cause. OLS regression results show including information reduced empathy when participants were exposed to sad images, replicating prior research on sadness in charity marketing. No similar effect was observed for disgust-evoking images. Although disgust images alone reduced empathy compared to sad images alone, disgust images paired with information were just as effective as sad images alone and sad images accompanied by information. Empathy mediated the relationship between exposure to each type of appeal and donations – this relationship was negative for sad images but not for disgust images accompanied by information. Research limitations/implications – These findings suggest the use of disgust may help to mitigate the loss of empathy that occurs when individuals engage in deliberative tasks, such as reading information about a cause. They also illustrate how the distinct properties of discrete emotions can be used strategically to influence social marketing outcomes. Originality/value – Existing research has compared disgust-evoking images to appeals using neutral, mildly disgusting or positive emotional imagery. This study compares disgust to sadness, a negative emotion commonly used in charity marketing, and considers interaction effects with informational elements of the appeal.
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Sadness, but not all negative emotions, heightens addictive substance use
Do negative feelings in general trigger addictive behavior, or do specific emotions play a stronger role? Testing these alternative accounts of emotion and decision making, we drew on the Appraisal Tendency Framework to predict that sadness, specifically, rather than negative mood, generally, would 1) increase craving, impatience, and actual addictive substance use and 2) do so through mechanisms selectively heightened by sadness. Using a nationally representative, longitudinal survey, study 1 (n= 10,685) revealed that sadness, but not other negative emotions (i.e., fear, anger, shame), reliably predicted current smoking as well as relapsing 20 years later. Study 2 (n= 425) used an experimental design, and found further support for emotion specificity: Sadness, but not disgust, increased self-reported craving relative to a neutral state. Studies 3 and 4 (n= 918) introduced choice behavior as outcome variables, revealing that sadness causally increased impatience for cigarette puffs. Moreover, study 4 revealed that the effect of sadness on impatience was more fully explained by concomitant appraisals of self-focus, which are specific to sadness, than by concomitant appraisals of negative valence, which are general to all negative emotions. Importantly, study 4 also examined the topography of actual smoking behavior, finding that experimentally induced sadness (as compared to neutral emotion) causally increased the volume and duration of cigarette puffs inhaled. Together, the present studies provide support for a more nuanced model regarding the effects of emotion on tobacco use, in particular, as well as on addictive behavior, in general.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1559511
- PAR ID:
- 10129045
- Publisher / Repository:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Volume:
- 117
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0027-8424
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 943-949
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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