Consumer response to celebrity transgression: investigating the effects of celebrity gender and past transgressive and philanthropic behaviors using real celebrities

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to develop and test a new research model of consumer response to celebrity transgression. It examines the effects of celebrity past transgression and philanthropic histories in influencing consumer acceptance (i.e. forgiveness and blame) of a single celebrity transgression behavior and the subsequent endorsement potential of the transgressed celebrity. It also examines consumer acceptance of celebrity transgressions from the gender perspective. Design/methodology/approach By using real celebrities, this study conducted a 2 (transgression history: high vs low) × 2 (philanthropic history: high vs low) × 2 (celebrity gender: male vs female) between-subject online experiment with 823 US young adults. Findings Results showed that forgiving (blaming) the transgressed celebrity was positively (negatively) associated with the celebrity’s endorsement potential. Transgression history had a significantly negative indirect effect on endorsement potential via its negative effect on forgiveness and positive effect on blame. Philanthropic history mitigated the negative indirect effect of transgression history on endorsement potential only for male celebrities, not female celebrities. Originality/value This study contributes to the current human brand and celebrity transgression literature and fills the research gap by using real male and female celebrities to incorporate the real history of celebrities as determinants of consumer judgment of celebrity transgression. This study also makes its unique contributions by focusing on the celebrity-related outcomes and demonstrating the moderating roles of past philanthropic behaviors and celebrity gender for their potential to mitigate the negative effects of transgression history on consumer responses to a single transgression.

Exploring the impact of perceived social media agility on co-creation opportunities and brand attachment: the moderating role of technology reflectiveness

“…The participants were also required to reside in the United States. MTurk has been used by previous authors based on the demographical varieties it provides that make it suitable for behavioral studies (Lee et al , 2021; Rifon et al , 2023), especially when eligibility requirements are implemented, such as setting approval hit rates like the current study used (Aguinis et al , 2021). Each MTurk worker was paid $0.75 for completing the survey.…”

Sympathy or shock: how transgression diagnosticity impacts consumer perceptions and intentions regarding person-brands

“…It tends to take a long pattern of behaviors to build up perceptions of an individual’s moral character and personality (Rydell et al , 2007). Consistent transgressing behaviors therefore drive consumers to make internal rather than external attributions regarding a given action (Kim et al , 2022; Rifon et al , 2023), which lower attitudes toward the transgressing individual. In contrast, transgressions that are perceived to be out of character for a firm are more likely to be discounted and forgiven than are ones which are consistent with the firm’s past behavior (Tsarenko and Tojib, 2015).…”

“…Transgression diagnosticity is defined as the extent to which a transgression is perceived as being severe (Choi et al , 2023; Cone and Ferguson, 2015; Fetscherin and Sampedro, 2019), consistent with past behavior (Kim et al , 2022; Rifon et al , 2023; Rydell et al , 2007) and central to a brand’s identity (Ahluwalia et al , 2000; Choi et al , 2023; Fetscherin and Sampedro, 2019; Guckian et al , 2018; Viscomi, 2023). Past research on the impact of diagnosticity on consumer behavior has typically focused only on transgression severity as an operationalization of diagnosticity (Cone and Ferguson, 2015), or has identified consumer responses to a single corporate transgression (Guckian et al , 2018).…”