The route to improve the effectiveness of negative PSAs

Jingjing Ma; Zichuan Mo; David Gal

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.028

The route to improve the effectiveness of negative PSAs

J Bus Res. 2021 Feb:123:669-682. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.028.

Authors

Jingjing Ma¹, Zichuan Mo², David Gal³

Affiliations

¹ National School of Development, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
² International School of Business and Finance, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519082, China.
³ University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607, United States.

Abstract

To encourage people to behave in a more socially responsible or healthy way, many public service announcements (PSAs) dramatically illustrate the dire consequences of undesirable social or health behaviors. However, although informative, such negatively-framed PSAs can generate unintended consequences (e.g., a bad mood, low message acceptance). In this research, we investigated two approaches to improve the effectiveness of negatively-framed PSAs: (1) mood elevation and (2) self-affirmation. Using three studies with large samples of consumers, we found that adding mood-elevating or self-affirming elements to a negative PSA can be an effective way to enhance message acceptance. This is especially the case for recipients currently engaging (vs. not engaging) in the undesirable behaviors. Additionally, we designed mood elevation methods that can be implemented in PSAs in practice.

Keywords: Identity threat; Mood; Public service announcement (PSA); Self-affirmation.