Premium
The missing role of moral values in anti‐vaping messaging
Author(s) -
Minton Elizabeth A.,
Gardiner Paige
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/joca.12394
Subject(s) - immorality , religiosity , morality , social psychology , psychology , perception , advertising , business , political science , neuroscience , law
Vaping‐related illnesses are on the rise. Various anti‐vaping campaigns have been launched, but these marketing campaigns may be missing a core component of the reason that consumers vape—consumers perceive vaping as more moral than alternatives. Our research builds off belief congruence theory to examine this conjecture and accompanying solutions through three studies. Studies 1 and 2 show positive relationships between vaping morality perceptions and vaping attitudes/behavior in addition to identifying religiosity as an explanatory factor. Study 3 then experimentally manipulated marketing messaging to show that morality‐based messaging was most effective at increasing immorality perceptions and decreasing positive affect toward vaping, particularly for higher religiosity consumers.