When I Feel How a Turtle Feels: Switching Perspectives Enhances Consumer Ethical Behavior

• Published in: Advances in consumer research Vol. 50; pp. 410 - 411
• Main Authors: Lee, Hsiao-Ching, Chang, Chun-tuan, Jian, Bo-yun, Chang, Chia-Han, Chi, Chan-shen
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana Association for Consumer Research 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Actors; Animals; Behavior; Between-subjects design; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Emotions; Empathy; Ethics; Horror films; Marketing; Public service advertising; Social psychology; Switching
• ISSN: 0098-9258

This research contributes to the evolving research stream of visual perspective by proposing a switching perspective, comparing with first-person perspective, to enhance ethical behavior. Three experiments are conducted. Perceived fear and empathy are the sequential underlying mechanisms. Ad appeal is the moderator of visual perspective on ethical behavior. Advertisers rely on images of different visual perspectives to evoke the consumer ethical behaviors. Prior research has revealed that different visual perspectives influence consumers' emotions, interpret at inn of actions, and attitudes toward the ad and the advertised product, and purchase intentions. Observations from practice demonstrates both first-person and switching perspectives are popular in ethical behavior promotion. These observations inspire us to examine the perceptual differences between the first-person and switching perspectives, and to further investigate how visual perspective affects consumer ethical behaviors.