Forgiveness from Emotion Fit: Emotional Frame, Consumer Emotion, and Feeling-Right in Consumer Decision to Forgive

Abstract

Three studies examine an emotion fit effect in the crisis communication, namely, the interaction between emotional frames of guilt and shame and consumer emotions of anger and fear on consumer forgiveness. Guilt-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than shame-framing for angry consumers, whereas shame-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than guilt-framing for fearful consumers. These effects are driven by consumers' accessible regulatory foci associated with anger/fear and guilt/shame. Specifically, feelings of anger activate a promotion focus that is represented by guilt frames, while feelings of fear activate a prevention focus that is enacted by shame frames. Compared with emotion non-fit (i.e., anger to shame and fear to guilt), emotion fit (i.e., anger to guilt and fear to shame) facilitates greater feelingright and consumer forgiveness. The findings offer novel insights for extant literature on emotion, crisis communication, and regulatory focus theory, as well as practical suggestions regarding the emotional frames.

When the Underdog Positioning Backfires! The Effects of Ethical Transgressions on Attitudes Toward Underdog Brands

“…Findings in social psychology also support our assumption. Individuals are more likely to feel extremely offended when they are criticized by a group they are strongly attached to (Moreland and McMinn, 1999) or by a transgressor with whom they perceive they have a quality relationship (McCullough et al, 1998). Further, for highly identified firms, negative information drives consumers to feel betrayed and to react strongly in a more permanent way (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003).…”

“…The aforementioned moderating role of brand biography and the transgression types with a boundary condition were all replicated in the integrated model of Study 4. Thus, the type of brand transgression in which the underdog is involved may be critical, but how to categorize the transgression and communicate the nature of such transgressions to the consumers may be a more crucial factor in altering consumer attitudes toward the related brands (Ran et al, 2016).…”

Neuromarketing in Haute Cuisine Gastronomic Experiences

“…Moreover, during the tasting of the dishes, the diner mainly focuses on looking at the dish he is tasting, especially on those dishes in which the dish must be interacted with. From the application of traditional marketing (in-depth interview), it can be highlighted that the experience was generally valued by all as very good and enriching in both phases, since satisfied consumers consider their expectations met (Ran et al, 2016). However, consumers are delighted when they have lived an experience that meets their expectations (Martínez-Ruiz et al, 2017).…”

Believing in Karma: The Effect of Mortality Salience on Excessive Consumption

“…Finally, though we demonstrated the mediating role of temporal perspective in the current research (studies 2 and 3), there are other potential factors that could have influenced the confirmed effects as well. For example, could promotion or prevention orientation drive consumers to highlight reaping rewards or avoiding punishments (Ran et al, 2016)? Examining how exactly the above processes work also seems to be a fertile ground for subsequent research.…”