Promoting Help For Victims of Child Abuse: Using Positive Or Negative, Certain Or Uncertain Emotions?

This study investigated the effectiveness of two cognitive appraisal dimensions of emotions, valence and certainty, in advertisements promoting a socially oriented organization. Furthermore, the moderating impact of showing multiple unidentified victims versus showing one identified victim and donation history of the respondents was investigated in 239 adult citizens. Certain emotions proved to be more effective (compatible) than uncertain ones for (with) advertisements with multiple unidentified victims and regular donors, whereas the opposite holds true for advertisements with one identified victim and non-regular donors. Surprisingly, positive emotions were found to be more or equally effective than negative ones under all conditions.

Citation:

Tineke Faseur, Maggie Geuens, and Leen Adams (2008) ,"Promoting Help For Victims of Child Abuse: Using Positive Or Negative, Certain Or Uncertain Emotions?", in LA - Latin American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 2, eds. Claudia R. Acevedo, Jose Mauro C. Hernandez, and Tina M. Lowrey, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 150-151.