Courage to Face the Truth: Positive, Negative and Mixed Affect as Predictors of Individuals’ Acceptance of Ego-Threatening Information in Prosocial Media Messages

• In Event: Mass Communicating With Power: Exploring Media’s Capacity to Promote Moral Emotions and Inspire Prosociality

Abstract

It may be relatively easy for recipients to accept prosocial media messages that ask them to act on positive moral values (e.g., kindness or generosity), because being addressed as a moral person is good for one's self-esteem. Prosocial messages that ask recipients to abstain from habitual behaviors that can harm, wrong or discriminate other people seem more difficult to accept, because such messages address recipients as morally imperfect persons, thus presenting a threat to their self-concept. Our study examines the role of positive, negative, and mixed affect in individuals' responses to prosocial messages that include ego-threatening information (e.g., about the social and ecological consequences of unconscious consumer behavior). The messages were presented either with or without an uplifting outlook that appealed to recipients' positive moral values, and suggested prosocial behavioral alternatives. Results indicate that negative (ego-threatening) and positive (ego-supportive) feelings jointly contributed to prosocial message effects.

Authors

• Anne Bartsch, LMU Munich

• Johanna Keppeler, LMU Munich

• Andrea Kloss, LMU Munich

• Lukas A. Angerer, Erfurt U

• Miriam Humml, LMU Munich

• Theresa Leitner, LMU Munich