The Effectiveness of Guilt and Shame Appeals on Health Communications: The Moderating Role of Self-construal and Personal Cultural Orientation

Abstract

This study examines the moderating effects of self-construal and personal cultural orientation on the relationships between guilt and shame appeals and health message compliance. Binge drinking is chosen as the health issue for this study and a between-subjects experiment ( n = 301) was conducted to test the model. The study makes several contributions to the literature of communications using guilt and shame appeals by exploring conditions under which such appeals are more effective. The main effect of self-construal on guilt/shame arousals was found, but no interactive effect with referencing or sources of evaluation. The effect of personal cultural orientation, which has been under-researched in the guilt and shame emotions, on message compliance supported an interactive effect with emotion type. Novelly, the methodological value of this research is in the study of response/emotional arousal from the stimulus, not the stimulus/appeal itself.