Journal of Applied Psychology 1995, Vol. 80, No. 6,697-705 Copyright 1995 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0021-9010/95/S3.00 Guilt Appeals in Advertising: What Are Their Effects? Robin Higie Coulter University of Connecticut Mary Beth Pinto Mercyhurst College This study examined consumers' emotional responses, their attitudes toward advertise- ments and brands, attributions about the companies promoting the brands, and purchase intention for ads varying on level of guilt appeal. Sixty working mothers, a prime target of guilt appeals, participated in the study. Results indicated that moderate guilt appeals elicited more felt guilt in the working mothers than did low or high guilt appeals. Fur- thermore, emotional responses, particularly anger, mediated the relationship between level of guilt appeal and consumers' attitudes and corporate attributions, and an inverse relationship occurred between level of guilt appeal and attitudes and attributions. Pur- chase intention was affected by the level of the guilt appeal and by anger. Marketing and advertising practitioners are continu- ally looking for more effective ways to persuade consum- ers to buy their products and services. Advertisers have relied on both informational and emotional appeals to help form and change attitudes and to convince consum- ers to purchase (Edell & Burke, 1987; Ratchford, 1987; Rossiter, Percy, & Donovan, 1991). The guilt appeal, one type of emotional appeal, is becom- ing more popular as a persuasion technique (Edmondson, 1986). For example, manufacturers attempting to capi- talize on society's heightened interest in health and fitness have used guilt appeals to promote weight loss services, ex- ercise equipment, fitness centers, and food products such as prunes and fat-free ice cream. Similarly, manufacturers of household and children's products have used guilt appeals targeted at working mothers. Although there is evidence of the increased use of guilt appeals to induce purchasing of products, most advertising and consumer research regard- ing guilt appeals has been conducted in the context of changing behaviors, volunteerism, and charitable contribu- tions (Bozinoff&Ghingold, 1983; Dougherty, 1986). The purpose of this article is to examine the effects of advertisements containing guilt appeals on consumers' emotional responses to ads, attitudes toward the advertise- ments (A ad ), attitudes toward the brands (A br ), attributions about the companies promoting the brands, and purchase intention. First, we consider guilt as a motivator and as an Robin Higie Coulter, Department of Marketing, School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut; Mary Beth Pinto, Business Division, Mercyhurst College. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Robin Higie Coulter, Department of Marketing, School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-2041. Electronic mail may be sent via In- ternet to higie@uconnvm.uconn.edu. advertising appeal. Then, we briefly review the literature, providing theoretical grounding for the hypotheses regard- ing the effects of varying levels of guilt appeals on the afore- mentioned dependent variables. We test our hypotheses in a 3 (guilt level: low, medium, or high) X 2 (product category: bread or dental floss) experiment in which working mothers evaluated and responded to advertisements we used as stim- uli. Our results have implications regarding guilt appeals in marketing communications. Guilt and Guilt Appeals Guilt has been researched in a number of disciplines, including philosophy (Johnson & Johnson, 1977), theol- ogy (Izard, 1977), and psychology (Dougherty, 1986; Plutchik, 1980; Wicker, Payne, & Morgan, 1983). Much of this research has suggested guilt results from "essen- tially private recognition that one has violated a personal standard" (Kugler & Jones, 1992, p. 318). For example, Gaylin (1979) suggested that guilt "signals us when we have transgressed from codes of behavior which we per- sonally want to sustain. .. . Feeling guilty informs us we have failed our own ideals" (p. 52), and Wolman (1973) described guilt as a feeling associated with "the realiza- tion that one has transgressed a moral, social or ethical principle" (p. 165). With the use of guilt in advertising on the rise (Murphy, 1994; Samalin & Hogarty, 1994), several re- searchers have discussed guilt appeals in marketing com- munications (Ghingold, 1980; Pinto & Priest, 1991; Ruth & Faber, 1988a, 1988b). Some research on guilt appeals has examined advertising campaigns that at- tempt to arouse guilt (Wheatley & Oshikawa, 1970); others have investigated consumer reactions to advertise- ments containing guilt appeals (Ghingold, 1980). Our purpose was to examine the effects of varying levels of 697 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.