Tainted by Stigma: The Interplay of Stigma and Moral Identity in Health Persuasion
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00222437211060854
Abstract
The current research examines the interactive effect of consumers’ moral identity and risk factor stigma on health message effectiveness. We theorize that engaging in advocated health behaviors has moral associations; however, a stigmatized risk factor in a message “taints” the morality of the advocated health behavior. Thus, consumers with high (vs. low) moral identity are more likely to comply with health messages when risk factor stigma is low, and this positive moral identity effect is undermined when risk factor stigma is high. We test stigma’s threat to moral identity by measuring defensive processing (studies 1 and 2) and the attenuating effect of self-affirmation on the negative effect of stigma (studies 3 and 4). We apply the stigma-by-association principle to develop and test a messaging intervention (study 5). Our studies suggest that, depending on whether a health message contains stigmatized risk factors, marketers could employ a combination of tactics such as activating moral identity, offering self-affirming message frames, and/or highlighting low stigma risk factors to bolster message effectiveness.
Loved As-Is: How God Salience Lowers Interest in Self-Improvement Products
Journal of Consumer Research, ucab055, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab055
Abstract
Consumers often desire to become better versions of themselves. Reflecting this interest in self-improvement, the marketplace offers consumers a wide range of products and services that promise to improve or better the consumer in some way. But, in a world with unlimited opportunities to spend one’s time and money, what influences whether consumers will invest in products that enable self-improvement? We demonstrate that the degree to which God is salient has a negative effect on individuals’ preferences for consumption choices with self-improvement features compared to equally attractive options that do not include such features. We propose that this is because thoughts of God activate a greater sense of being loved for who you are (“loved ‘as-is’”), making self-improvement a lower priority. We demonstrate this basic effect across several experiments as well as archival data, provide process evidence through mediation and moderation, and address alternative explanations. We also identify important boundary conditions: God salience is less likely to decrease interest in self-improvement products when consumers do not believe in God, and when God is considered to be a punishing (vs. loving) entity.“This research demonstrates that the physical properties of shopping carts influence purchasing and spending. Prior research on ergonomics indicates that standard shopping carts, which are pushed via a horizontal handlebar, are likely to activate arm extensor muscles. Prior research on arm muscle activation, in turn, suggests that arm extensor activation may elicit less purchasing than arm flexor activation. The authors thus deduce that standard shopping carts may be suboptimal for stimulating purchases. The authors predicted that shopping carts with parallel handles (i.e., like a wheelbarrow or “walker”) would instead activate the flexor muscles and thus increase purchasing. An electromyography (EMG) study revealed that both horizontal and vertical handles more strongly activate the extensor muscles of the upper arm (triceps), whereas parallel handles more strongly activate the flexor muscles (biceps). In a field experiment, parallel-handle shopping carts significantly and substantially increased sales across a broad range of categories, including both vice and virtue products. Finally, in a si...See full post