Motivating Emergency Preparedness Behaviors: The Differential Effects of Guilt Appeals and Actually Anticipating Guilty Feelings

Communication Quarterly

Volumn 60, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 545-559

  Turner, Monique Mitchell ^a   Underhill, Jill Cornelius ^b  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b MARSHALL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Emotion; Guilt; Guilt Appeals; Persuasion

Indexed keywords

EID: 84866328366     PISSN: 01463373     EISSN: 17464102     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01463373.2012.705780     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. American Public Health Association. (2007). National Opinion Survey to Determine Levels of Preparedness for a Public Health Crisis. Retrieved fromhttp://www.nphw.org/2007/Survey%20Key%20Findings%20and%20%20summary.pdf
2. American Red Cross. (2007, October 1). American's preparedness for disaster or emergency improves. Retrieved fromhttp://www.redcross.org/pressrelease/ 0,1077,0_314_7100,00.htm
3. American Red Cross. (2010). Plan and Prepare. Retrieved fromhttp://www.redcross.org/prepare
4. Aristotle. (1991). On rhetoric: A theory of civic discourse (G. A. Kennedy, Trans.) New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 4 BC).
5. Baumeister, R. F., Stillwell, A. M., & Heatherton, T. F. (1994). Guilt: An interpersonal approach. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 243-267. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.115.2.243
6. Bessarabova, E., Turner, M. M., & Fink, E. L. (2007, November) You ain't guiltin' me into nothin':" Guilt adolescents, and reactance. Presented at the annual conference of the National Communication Association, Chicago, IL.
7. Boster, F. J., Mitchell, M. M., Lapinski, M. K., Cooper, H., Orrego, V. O., & Reinke, R. (1999). The impact of guilt and type of compliance-gaining message on compliance. Communication Monographs, 66, 168-177. doi:10.1080/03637759909376470
8. Carlsmith, J. M., & Gross, A. E. (1969). Some effects of guilt on compliance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11, 232-239. doi:10.1037/h0027039
9. Coulter, R. H., & Pinto, M. B. (1995). Guilt appeals in advertising: What are their effects? Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 697-705. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.80.6.697
10. Council for Excellence in Government (CEG). (2006). Introducing the Public Readiness Index: A survey-based tool to measure the preparedness of individuals, families, and communities. Retrieved fromhttp://www.citizencorps.gov/pdf/cp_surveysdbase_62007.pdf
11. Darlington, R. B., & Macker, C. E. (1966). Displacement of guilt-produced altruistic behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 442-443. doi:10.1037/h0023743
12. Dennis, J. M. (2010). Summary of KnowledgePanel design. Retrieved fromhttp://www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp/reviewer-info.html
13. Department of Homeland Security. (2012). Prepare. Plan. Stay informed. Retrieved fromwww.ready.gov
14. Dillard, J. P., & Shen, L. J. (2005). On the nature of reactance and its role in persuasive health communication. Communication Monographs, 72, 144-168. doi:10.1080/03637750500111815
15. Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2010). Are you ready? An in-depth guide to citizen preparedness. Retrieved fromwww.fema.gov/ areyouready/
16. Freedman, J. L., Wallington, S. A., & Bless, L. (1967). Compliance without pressure: The effect of guilt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7, 117-124. doi:10.1037/h0025009
17. Konecni, V. J. (1972). Some effects of guilt on compliance: A field replication. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 23, 30-32. doi:10.1037/h0032875
18. Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.
19. Lerner, J. S., Gonzalez, R. M., Small, D. A., & Fischoff, B. (2003). Effects of fear and anger on perceived risks of terrorism: A national field experiment. Psychological Science, 14, 144-150. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.01433
20. Lindsey, L. L. M. (2005). Anticipated guilt as behavioral motivation: An examination of appeals to help unknown others through bone marrow donation. Human Communication Research, 31, 453-481. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2005.tb00879.x
21. Lindsey, L. L. M., Yun, K. A., & Hill, J. B. (2007). Anticipated guilt as motivation to help unknown others: An examination of empathy as a moderator. Communication Research, 34, 468-480. doi:10.1177/0093650207302789
22. Macro International Inc. (2006). A post-Katrina assessment. Citizen Preparedness Review, 2. Retrieved fromhttp://www.citizencorps.gov/ pdf/citizen_prep_review_issue_2.pdf
23. Nabi, R. L. (1999). A cognitive functional model for the effects of discrete negative emotions on information processing, attitude change and recall. Communication Theory, 9, 292-320. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1999.tb00172.x
24. O'Keefe, D. (2000). Guilt and social influence. In M. Roloff (Ed.), Communication yearbook, (vol. 23, pp. 67-101). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
25. O'Keefe, D. J., & Figge, M. (1999). Guilt and expected guilt in the door-in-the-face technique. Communication Monographs, 66, 312-324. doi:10.1080/03637759909376482
26. Pinto, M. B., & Priest, S. (1991). Guilt appeals in advertising: An exploratory story. Psychological Reports, 69, 375-385. doi:10.2466/pr0.1991.69.2.375
27. Pinto, M. B., & Worobetz, N. D. (1992). Note on guilt appeals in advertising: Covariate effects on self-esteem and locus of control. Psychological Reports, 70, 19-22.
28. Quick, B. L., Bates, B. R., & Quinlan, M. R. (2009). The utility of anger in promoting clean indoor air policies. Health Communication, 24, 548-561. doi:10.1080/10410230903104939
29. Rains, S. A., & Turner, M. (2007). Psychological reactance and persuasive health communication: A test and extension of the intertwined model. Human Communication Research, 33, 241-269. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00298.x
30. Solomon, J. D. (2008, May 18). It's an emergency. We're not prepared. Washington Post. Retrieved fromhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603735.html?sid=ST2008051802638
31. Spielberger, C. D., Jacobs, G., Russell, S., & Crane, R. S. (1983). The assessment of anger: The state-trait anger scale. Advances in Personality Assessment, 2, 159-187.
32. Strickland, B. R. (Ed.). (2001). Guilt. In The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (, 2nd ed., pp. 285-286). Detroit: Gale Group, Inc.
33. Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences. (2010). Introducing TESS. Retrieved fromhttp://tess.experimentcentral.org/introduction.html
34. Turner, M. M. (2007). Using emotion to prevent risky behavior: The anger activism model. Public Relations Review, 33, 114-119. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2006.11.013
35. Turner, M. M., Shen, H., Jiang, H., Boudewyns, V., & Payne, D. (2010). The effects of guilt appeal intensity on persuasive and emotional outcomes: The moderating role of sponsor motive. Manuscript submitted for publication.
36. Wallace, J., & Sadalla, E. (1966). Behavioral consequences of transgression: The effect of social recognition. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1, 187-194.
37. Zeelenberg, M., & Breugelmans, S. M. (2008). The role of interpersonal harm in distinguishing regret from guilt. Emotion, 8, 589-596. doi:10.1037/a0012894