Approach versus Avoidance: A Self-Regulatory Perspective on Hypocrisy Induction in Anti-Cyberbullying CSR Campaigns

Abstract

Governments, institutions, and brands try various intervention strategies for countering growing cyberbullying, but with questionable effectiveness. The authors use hypocrisy induction, a technique for subtly reminding consumers that they have acted contrary to their moral values, to see whether it makes consumers more willing to support brand-sponsored anti-cyberbullying CSR campaigns. Findings demonstrate that hypocrisy induction evokes varying reactions depending on regulatory focus, mediated by guilt and shame. Specifically, consumers who have a dominant promotion (prevention) focus feel guilt (shame), which motivates them to overcome their discomfort by supporting (avoiding) an anti-cyberbullying campaign. Moral regulation is drawn as a theoretical underpinning to explain various consumer reactions to hypocrisy induction, the moderating role of regulatory focus, and mediating role of guilt and shame. The research contributes to the literature and provides practical implications by explaining when and why brands can use hypocrisy induction to persuade consumers to support social causes through the lens of moral regulation theory.

Hypocrites! Social Media Reactions and Stakeholder Backlash to Conflicting CSR Information

“…Social media is particularly effective for promoting communication among a large number of stakeholders and makes activism easier as it allows for the widespread expressions of support for firms (Earl & Kimport, 2011;Ma & Bentley, 2022). Social media also can be used for admonishment (Lewin & Warren, 2023;Ryoo & Kim, 2023). For example, a social media user recently posted a negative message highlighting the conflict between luxury brand Coach's practice of slashing unsold inventory so it cannot be reused (Kurutz, 2022) and Coach's policy of repairing damaged purses, which is part of their commitment to reduce the firm's impact on the environment (Coach|Our Planet n.d.).…”