The present paper systematically investigated the effectiveness of utilizing severe or disgusting, imagery, and the moderating effect of social closeness within non-profit health charity advertising appeals. Across three experiments, we found an interaction effect, whereby donations increased when severe images were shown, but only when high social closeness was also highlighted. Conversely, severe imagery reduced donations in the low social closeness condition, when participants were not prompted to think of their family. Despite the popularity of using severe imagery within charity advertising, our findings suggest that severe images should be used with caution in health charity marketing. Investigating the underlying mechanisms, we found that empathy (disgust) underlies the increase (decrease) of donation when severe imagery was used in a high (low) social closeness condition. Furthermore, we ruled out anger and perceived responsibility as competing moderators for these effects to verify whether other positive and negative emotions had similar effects.

中文翻译：

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广告中的严肃意象对慈善行为的影响及社会亲密感的调节作用

本文系统地研究了在非营利性健康慈善广告诉求中使用严重或令人厌恶的图像的有效性，以及社会亲密感的调节作用。在三个实验中，我们发现了一种交互效应，即当展示严重的图像时，捐款会增加，但只有当高度的社会亲密性也被强调时。相反，在社会亲密程度较低的情况下，当参与者没有被提示考虑他们的家人时，严重的意象会减少捐赠。尽管在慈善广告中使用严肃的图像很流行，但我们的研究结果表明，在健康慈善营销中应谨慎使用严肃的图像。通过研究其潜在机制，我们发现，当在高（低）社会亲密度条件下使用严肃的意象时，同理心（厌恶）是捐赠增加（减少）的基础。此外，我们排除了愤怒和感知责任作为这些影响的竞争调节因素，以验证其他积极和消极情绪是否具有类似的影响。