From Emotion to Action: How Framed Sustainability Messages Trigger Physiological Reactions and Influence Consumer...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Psychology
• Consumer Behavior
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Effective sustainability communication is crucial for driving behavioral change.
• Understanding consumer responses to environmental messages is complex.
• Message framing and visual elements significantly influence message processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the emotional and physiological effects of message framing in sustainability communication.
• To analyze how image-message combinations influence consumer engagement and arousal.
• To identify distinct consumer response patterns to sustainability information.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) to measure physiological arousal (activation).
• Employed hierarchical cluster analysis to identify response patterns.
• Examined diverse product categories and image-message combinations.

Main Results:

• Diverse and nuanced consumer reactions were observed.
• Significant interactions between message framing, topic, and gender influenced responses.
• Seven distinct response patterns were identified, highlighting consumer typologies.

Conclusions:

• Tailoring sustainability messages based on framing, topic, and audience demographics (like gender) is essential.
• Identified consumer typologies offer practical value for organizations.
• Enhanced audience engagement and sustainable behavior can be achieved through optimized messaging.