Ethical dissonance in environmental advertising: Moderating effects of self-benefit versus other-benefit appeals
International Journal of Advertising, 2021
Abstract The authors examine how consumers react to online prosocial advertising reminding them t... more Abstract The authors examine how consumers react to online prosocial advertising reminding them that they have violated ethical standards. Findings show that consumers feel ethical dissonance when recognizing that they have made uncivil online comments or have stood by while others did so. To alleviate the discomfort, they are likely to support a subsequent although unrelated environmental campaign. The effect is contingent upon whether the second message indicates that the advocated actions will benefit others or consumers alone. Specifically, ethical dissonance in one domain motivates consumers to adopt ethical behaviours in another domain, but only when the second domain appears to benefit others. In contrast, self-benefit appeals may cause ethical dissonance to backfire, so that consumers reject the subsequent environmental campaign. Mediational analyses show that heightened guilt (shame) drives the positive (negative) effects of other (self)-benefit appeals. Theoretical implications and ideas for future research are discussed.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ evaluation of non-focal overlay im... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ evaluation of non-focal overlay images appearing closer than the focal point (e.g. a transparent brand logo appearing in front of an online news article). Design/methodology/approach Three experiments identify factors on both task-side and image-side that influence consumers’ liking of non-focal overlay images. Findings The findings show that study participants evaluate the non-focal overlay image more favorably when they are engaged in a primary task that is challenging rather than unchallenging, and when the primary task and the non-focal overlay images require different processing modes (e.g. a conceptual primary task paired with a perceptual image) rather than similar processing modes (e.g. a conceptual primary task paired with a conceptual image). Research limitations/implications A caveat is that Experiment 1 lacked a baseline condition. Another limitation is that we conducted all three experiments in a controlled ...
The present research examines how quantitative and qualitative aspectsvolume and valenceof eWOM o... more The present research examines how quantitative and qualitative aspectsvolume and valenceof eWOM on various social media platforms in the movie industry, along with other forms of marketing communications (e.g. advertising expenditure), predict box office and DVD sales for pre-and post-periods of movie releases. The analysis of aggregated big data from multiple sources-65,665,859 social media postings from blogs, forums, news, and Twitter, Nielsen's ad expenditure data, and Rotten Tomatoes ratings for 170 movies-revealed that the explanatory power of the model for box office revenue and DVD sales mostly comes from the volume, rather than valence, of eWOM.
This study synthesizes previous research on psychological distance, functional theories of attitu... more This study synthesizes previous research on psychological distance, functional theories of attitudes, and cultural contexts of communication to develop a novel perspective regarding how contemporary consumers evaluate luxury advertising on social media. Three empirical studies conducted in Korea, the U.S., and Germany reveal that the consumer perceptions of psychological distance associated with luxury brands influences whether benefit-based or attribute-based appeals are most effective. Further, we reveal that this effect depends on the consumers' attitude functions toward luxury consumption, and it varies across cultural contexts. The results offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with additional tools to increase the effectiveness of luxury brand advertising in the context of social media and across different cultural markets.
When women are dissatisfied: Gender differences in product failure attribution
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 2017
We studied whether or not men and women respond differently to product failure by investigating h... more We studied whether or not men and women respond differently to product failure by investigating how the level of satisfaction changes according to the failure severity and the locus of causality. We conducted an experiment with 2 types of failure attribution (company or consumer) and 2 different levels of failure severity (less severe or severe) with 237 participants. Results showed that, when product failure was severe, the women had lower satisfaction than the men did for consumer-caused failure, but not for company-caused failure. Utilizing a defensive attribution framework, we ran a mediation analysis to identify why such differences occur. The analysis suggested that defensive motivation, whereby the individual avoids self-blame for severe failure, was heightened more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that, when a product failure is consumer-caused, companies must react more rapidly when managing female consumers than when managing male ones. Further, companies shoul...
Old, But Gold! How Age Stereotype Affects the Evaluation of Second-Hand Products: An Abstract
Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2017
Imagine you are looking for a second-hand armchair on the Internet. You soon come across an armch... more Imagine you are looking for a second-hand armchair on the Internet. You soon come across an armchair you like, but you notice the seller is a senior person. Would the age of the seller—whether he/she is old or young—affect the chances of buying this armchair? The global population is aging (United Nations 2013). Due to a combination of increased life expectancy and reduction in fertility rates (Lutz et al. 2008), the percentage of people over 60 years old is expected to double by 2050 (United Nations 2013). The online presence of seniors is rapidly expanding as well. In Europe alone, Internet usage has doubled among people over 65 years old (Edwards et al. 2015). The so-called silver surfers are turning to online technology to increase interpersonal interaction (Fosman and Nordmyr 2015; Jyoti 2014), but also to earn additional income (Telegraph 2014). Online second-hand markets are one of the fastest growing markets (Walia 2013; Walia and Zahedi 2013). It is worth noting, however, that these markets are peculiar to the extent that available products are pre-owned by someone that buyers often do not know. Research suggests that certain invisible properties of former owners can transfer to goods (Kapitan and Bhargave 2013). It seems thus that consumers draw inferences about used goods based on available information of previous owners (e.g. age), which can shape product perceptions and intentions. Drawing on age stereotyping literature (Fiske et al. 2002; Cuddy et al. 2008; Couto and Koller 2012), and consumer contamination theory (Argo et al. 2006, 2008), we investigate how a senior (vs. young) seller contaminates second-hand products. Specifically, we examine whether being a senior (vs. young) seller in a second-hand goods market can increase or decrease consumers’ purchase intentions toward the product. Two experimental studies suggest that consumers prefer to buy used goods that were previously owned by senior people. Findings show that interpersonal warmth fully mediates this effect. Our results suggest that the growing senior population might have competitive advantages when it comes to the online second-hand marketplace. Future studies will investigate if these effects hold with different product categories.
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 2016
We investigated how consumer and message characteristics affect the consistency between message a... more We investigated how consumer and message characteristics affect the consistency between message acceptance and purchase intention for green products (viz., green gap). Participants were 231 adults who were approached in various public places in South Korea (e.g., shopping malls). We used 2 mock advertisements with fictitious brand names. Our data showed that participants who were committed to environmentally friendly behaviors, as measured by their past proenvironmental behaviors, displayed a tighter relationship between accepting green advertising messages and intending to purchase green products. Furthermore, the acceptance–intention relationship was even stronger among participants who were strongly committed to environmentally friendly behaviors and who also found the advertising message believable. Our research findings add to the literature on the attitude–behavior relationship by demonstrating that both dispositional and message factors strengthen thought–action connections.
Construal Level Theory (CLT) has been explored and researched in many different contexts. In an a... more Construal Level Theory (CLT) has been explored and researched in many different contexts. In an academic setting, the areas of CLT in time (temporal distance), physical space (spatial distance), and interpersonal/social distance are frequently revisited for the implications they may and often do have. High-level construals are associated with abstract thinking, while low-level construals are associated with more concrete thinking (Trope & Liberman, 2010). In today’s media-saturated world, it is important to understand how the branded messages the world receives affect the cognition of society as a whole. This project aims to explore what role, if any, branding and/or product placement has in the cognitive and performance abilities for various tasks. This will be tested by utilizing branded products in a task-completion challenge and measuring through both task performance and collected survey data from participants. This project will focus on the construal levels of individuals and how the use of and/or the engagement with a socially proximal branded item will affect perceived spatial distance. A study from Van Kerckhove, Geuend, & Vermeir (2014) found that construal levels impact behaviors. The results of their 2014 published study showed that individuals with a high construal (i.e. they thought more abstractly) were linked to a strong inclination to look up, whereas when individuals had lower-level construals (i.e. thinking more concretely) they were more likely to have a behavior of looking down. This ties into their paper’s title quite nicely – “the floor is nearer than the sky” – in that looking down at what is perceivable and spatially proximal is less likely to be viewed as ambiguous or abstract.
Humour is a popular appeal used in global advertising and with the growing use of comedic violenc... more Humour is a popular appeal used in global advertising and with the growing use of comedic violence ads in the U.S., it is a worthwhile endeavour to see whether comedic violence ads by U.S. brands could travel globally. This research conducted three studies in three countries, chosen for their distinctively different cultural tendencies and market potential: the U.S., Korea, and Croatia. Across the studies it was found that (1) individuals in the U.S. used aggressive humour in daily life more than Koreans or Croatians, (2) U.S. had higher perceived humour and ad attitudes towards the comedic violence ad than in Korea or Croatia, and (3) U.S. individuals found the comedic violence ad funnier for themselves than for others in different cultures while Koreans thought the ad was less funny for themselves than for others in different cultures. Croatians did not have response differences between self vs. others. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Attitudes that are blindly adopted, termed premature cognitive commitments, can place unnecessary... more Attitudes that are blindly adopted, termed premature cognitive commitments, can place unnecessary limitations on how we perceive and engage in the world around us, including how we perceive fatigue. Fatigue is still widely treated as a somatic reaction, caused by physical limitations. In contrast to this, our hypothesis, based on Langer’s mind/body unity theory, states that people perceive fatigue at proportional milestones during a task, regardless of how long it is, how strenuous it is, or whether it is physical or cognitive, and that fatigue can be manipulated psychologically. Five studies were designed to investigate (a) whether or not proportional perceptions of fatigue, or fatigue milestones, exists, rendering fatigue an illusion and (b) whether perceptions of fatigue are malleable by way of Langerian mindfulness, offering individuals control in the management of fatigue. Study 1 introduced a fatigue scale and used retrospective perceptions about travel-fatigue. Study 2 added ...
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Papers by Sukki Yoon