Are Guilt Appeals Good in Green Marketing? the Moderating Roles of Issue Proximity and Environmental Involvement

Despite the growth of green marketing, little is known about how consumers process advertising messages that contain guilt appeals. The present research seeks to further the understanding of guilt appeals in green advertising by clarifying the moderating roles of issue proximity and environmental involvement. Experimental results indicate that a guilt appeal is more effective than a positive appeal. A guilt appeal backfires when a low-proximity issue is presented to individuals who are with low environment involvement. The boomerang effects of a guilt appeal are also found when promoting a high-proximity issue to the counterparts who are highly involved with the environment. Implications of the findings are discussed as well as limitations and directions for future research.

Citation:

Chun-Tuan Chang, Yu-Kang Lee, Ting-Ting Chen, and Shan-Min Wu (2011) ,"Are Guilt Appeals Good in Green Marketing? the Moderating Roles of Issue Proximity and Environmental Involvement ", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 449-451.