Effects of Affect and Message Framing on Responses to Charity Advertising: A Construal Level and Regulatory Focus Perspective

George Anghelcev*, Sela Sar, Yan Huang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Charitable donation appeals can be framed to highlight the attainment of desirable outcomes (promotion framing) or the avoidance of undesirable situations (prevention framing). Drawing from regulatory focus theory, construal level theory, and the linguistic categorization model, this study reveals how the impact of the two messages frames can be influenced by the emotional state of the message recipient. Participants had more favorable attitudes toward charity advertisements, were more likely to donate to a food bank, and placed more value on donating when charity ads highlighted desirable end-states, but only if they were in a positive mood. In a negative mood, participants responded better to charity ads that described how donations could be used to avoid undesirable situations. Analysis showed these effects might occur because people process information differently under the two mood conditions and the two message frames trigger different motivational mind-sets.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)115-131
Number of pages17
JournalCommunication Studies
Volume75
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Keywords

  • charity advertising
  • construal level theory
  • message framing
  • Mood
  • promotion–prevention
  • regulatory focus theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Communication

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