Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses displayed signs to promote preventive behaviors, such as wearing masks in public, but the effectiveness of this practice largely remains unknown. This research investigates the interaction effect between gain-loss framing and self-other-interest appeals on individual issue judgment of mask-wearing in public. Additionally, it examines the moderating role of perceived situational risks on such interaction effects. Three experiments show that in low-risk public environments, loss-framed (vs. gain-framed) messages are more persuasive when appealing to the interests of socially distant entities (i.e., family and friends in study 1 and 2, community in study 3), and gain-framed (vs. loss-framed) messages are more persuasive when appealing to the interests of socially proximal entities (i.e., self in study 2). However, in high-risk public environments, gain-framed messages are always more persuasive than loss-framed messages, especially when appealing to the interests of socially distant entities (i.e., community in study 3). Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

摘要

在 COVID-19 大流行期间，许多企业展示了促进预防行为的迹象，例如在公共场合戴口罩，但这种做法的有效性在很大程度上仍然未知。本研究探讨了损益框架与自身利益诉求之间的交互作用对公众戴口罩个体问题判断的影响。此外，它还检查了感知情境风险对此类交互效应的调节作用。三项实验表明，在低风险的公共环境中，当吸引远离社会的实体（即研究 1 和 2 中的家人和朋友，研究 3 中的社区）的兴趣时，损失框架（与增益框架）信息更具说服力) 和增益框架（相对于损失框架）消息在吸引与社会最接近的实体（即研究 2 中的自我）的兴趣时更具说服力。然而，在高风险的公共环境中，增益框架的信息总是比损失框架的信息更有说服力，尤其是在吸引与社会疏远实体（即研究 3 中的社区）的利益时。讨论了理论和实践意义、局限性和未来的研究方向。