How Disgust Enhances the Effectiveness of Fear Appeals

Andrea C. Morales; Eugenia C. Wu; Gavan J. Fitzsimons

doi:10.1509/jmr.07.0364

How Disgust Enhances the Effectiveness of Fear Appeals

Andrea C. Morales¹; Eugenia C. Wu²; Gavan J. Fitzsimons³

¹ Associate Professor of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University · ² Assistant Professor of Marketing, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University · ³ Professor of Marketing and Psychology, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Journal of Marketing Research 2012

The current research explores the role of disgust in enhancing compliance with fear appeals. Despite its frequent use in advertising and prevalence in consumer settings, little is known about the specific role that disgust plays in persuasion. This article explores the unique characteristics of disgust and examines its distinctive effect on persuasion. The results across a series of four studies demonstrate that adding disgust to a fear appeal appreciably enhances message persuasion and compliance beyond that of appeals that elicit only fear. Importantly, the results trace the persuasive effects of disgust to its strong and immediate avoidance reaction.

DOI: 10.1509/jmr.07.0364
Volume: 49 (3)
Pages: 383-393
Language: en
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Sources: crossref