Public Awareness of Consumer Products Containing Radioactive Materials: Empirical Evidence from Malaysia

Abstract

The emergence of online purchase platforms makes products containing radioactive materials more accessible to consumers. These products are gaining popularity and are widely available and easily accessible in the market today. This study examined how consumer’s psychological factors affect their decision of purchasing products containing radioactive materials in the market. Based on the protective action decision model (PADM) and the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), this study proposed a model to add to the literature on consumer awareness of risky products. In particular, this study investigated which type of regulatory focus message (promotion-focused advertisement or prevention-focused advertisement) is significant in moderating the effects of radiation safety knowledge and product knowledge on risk perception when purchasing products containing radioactive materials. The relationship between consumers’ risk perception and information seeking, which leads to the purchase intention of such products was also investigated. Advertisements with varying regulatory focus messages were randomly distributed to participants to determine whether consumers are more influenced by promotion-focused advertisement or prevention-focused advertisement to mitigate the risk of purchasing products containing radioactive materials. The results revealed that promotion-focused advertising messages evoked a positive effect on consumers’ radiation safety knowledge and product knowledge toward risk perception. However, prevention-focused regulatory advertising messages did not moderate the relationships between both radiation safety knowledge and product knowledge on consumers’ risk perception. This study offers guidelines for manufacturers, sellers, and marketers of products containing radioactive materials, and, importantly, for the government to devise strategies in designing effective social marketing advertisement for business, environmental and societal benefits.