An Emotion rarely occurs alone:
Emotional Flow Messages in Sustainability
Communication
Melissa Strassner
Student ID: 11107618
Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication
Master’s Programme Communication Science
Supervisor: Dhr. Dr. Andreas R. T. Schuck
Date of completion: 03.02.2017
Abstract
As one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the European Union aims at reducing food waste caused by consumers and retailers by 50 per cent until 2030.
Consequently, the communication of consumer changes through non-governmental
organisations in the member states is vital for reaching this goal. However, so far there is a gap between pro-environmental attitude and behaviour in Europe. This study researched one possible solution to closing this gap through emotionally enhanced messages. Specifically, it investigated the difference in the effectiveness of single emotional messages and such with more than one emotion, so-called emotional flow messages, on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions. An experiment with 320 participants and eight conditions was
conducted for this purpose. Against the expectations, the findings showed that emotional flow messages were significantly less effective in influencing food waste attitude than guilt
messages. Furthermore, mediation analyses showed that the emotional flow appeals had an indirect effect via sadness on food waste attitude and via guilt and shame on behavioural intentions. The implications of these findings are discussed at the end of this study.
“(…) each year, approximately one-third of all food produced for human consumption in the world is lost or wasted” (FAO, 2013)
As contributor to climate change, world hunger, deforestation, and other environmental problems, the reduction of food waste is a vital part of the European Commission’s Circular Economy package. With the help of the member states, the European Union (EU) plans to meet the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goal to reduce food waste from retailers and consumers by 50 per cent until 2030 (European Commission, 2016).
Research has found that households are the biggest source of food waste and account for almost 50 per cent of the waste along the production line, especially in industrialised countries (Priefer, Jörissen, Bräutigam, 2015). Consequently, to reduce food waste, policy changes as well as consumer changes are needed. Specifically in Europe, most citizens are aware of the importance of protecting the environment. In the Special Eurobarometer 416 (2014) respondents were asked how important protecting the environment is for them personally, 95 per cent answered that it was either very or fairly important to them.
However, research has found a gap between environmental attitudes and
pro-environmental behaviour. A study by Csutora (2012) assessed the difference of the ecological footprint of consumers that say they behave environmentally friendly and consumers that do not. They were not able to find a significant difference. This led to their conclusion that “green consumers” only marginally reduce their ecological footprint. One of the factors, identified by the study to influence this gap is emotional reaction (Csutora, 2012). It is assumed that the stronger a person’s emotional reaction to environmental problems, the more he or she will behave environmentally friendly (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Therefore, raising emotions for environmental problems among the public could bridge the gap between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour.
The EU Commission’s Circular Economy Package includes raising awareness for the issue among European citizens. This task is adopted by different NGOs all over Europe (European Commission, 2017). In Germany, one of the NGOs campaigning to stop food waste is the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). Their campaigns entail informing the public about food. According to one of their campaigners, the use of emotions is 50 per cent intentional and 50 per cent by chance (Appendix D).
Most people in the European Union receive their information about environmental problems from the media (Boykoff & Boykoff, 2007). Other than NGOs, news organisations employ certain news standards in their news coverage. Those include personalisation, dramatisation and novelty. One aspect of these news values is the use of emotions (Boykoff & Boykoff, 2007). Hence, emotions are often used to present the abstract topic of climate change to the public and make citizens aware of its urgency (Boykoff, 2008; Roeser, 2012). The
practitioners from the WWF are obligated to communicate in a solution-oriented way and to avoid raising fear among the public. Their task is to reach people morally and highlight their potential to reduce their food waste (see Appendix D). Moreover, research has established that the use of negative emotions such as fear can have the opposite effect than intended. Instead of taking action, people feel overwhelmed by the problem and feel their contribution would not make a difference (O’Neill & Nicholson Cole, 2009).
Following this argumentation, this study will research a relatively new path in emotion research: It will investigate the effectiveness of the so-called emotional flow. An emotional flow message induces more than one emotion in one message, separating it into different sequences that induce different emotions, to prevent people from reacting with denial or justifications (Nabi, 2015).
Being one of the first empirical studies to test this new theoretical model, this research project aims at investigating if an emotional flow message, from the negative emotion guilt to
the positive emotion enthusiasm in an NGO message concerning food waste, leads to more attitudinal and behavioural change than a message that only uses guilt or enthusiasm. The question I aim to answer with my research is:
RQ: Is an emotional flow message more effective in influencing food waste attitudes and behavioural intentions than the usage of single emotion-messages?
This study aims at expanding the currently thriving emotion research in political communication and empirically testing the theoretical framework of the emotional flow within the food waste communication issue. Furthermore, it will expand the understanding of the mediating role of discrete emotions in response to emotional appeals and their effect on subsequent behaviour. Lastly, this research aims at making a practical contribution for campaigners on how to formulate messages in food waste campaigns.
Theoretical framework Discrete emotions
The realisation that not only cognitive processes drive people’s decisions but also affect, has found its way into the scientific community a while ago. Hence, emotions have since become a widely studied phenomenon. Emotions are generally defined as internal mental states that people experience in a reaction to different situations, thus resulting in a change of judgement or behaviour (Ortony, Clore & Collins, 1988). Since emotions arise according to different events, they represent a short-term reaction and can have different levels of intensity (Lazarus, 1991).
Within the study of emotions, there are two different models that guide the research. The first one focuses on general dimensions of emotions. Its first dimension is arousal where emotions can emerge as either low or high. Its second dimension is the valence of an emotion, which is divided in feeling pleasure or displeasure (Nabi, 2010). Researchers are interested to
what extent a stimuli provokes these dimensions with either positive or negative feelings and how this leads to a change in attitude or behaviour (Russell, 1980; Lang, Greenwald, Bradley & Hamm, 1993).
The second view understands emotions in a categorical way with differing underlying thought patterns for different emotions (e.g. Plutchik, 1980; Roseman, Spindel & Jose, 1990; Lazarus, 1991). The environment is evaluated relative to one’s own goals with these thought patterns that lead to a specific action readiness, corresponding to the occurring emotion. The action tendencies of the specific emotion then influence people’s attitudes and behaviour to make them consistent with one’s goals (Nabi, 2010). In relation to climate change, scholars find effects of discrete emotions on people’s attitudes, climate change awareness and
behavioural change (O’Neill & Nicholson Cole, 2009; Onwezen, Antonides & Bartels, 2013; Chadwick, 2015). Therefore, this current study focuses on discrete emotions and their
influence on people’s attitudes and behavioural intention in the context of food waste.
Cognitive appraisal
Emotions are psychological constructs with five components. The first one is the
underlying thought pattern specific for an emotion, the so-called Cognitive Appraisal (Nabi, 2010). During information processing, emotions work as a heuristic, implying if an event or information is important for a person (Lazarus, 1991).
Lazarus (1991) established the concept of cognitive appraisal. He differentiates between two steps of appraisal that each consists of three dimensions. The first step is the so-called primary appraisal. It serves to evaluate if a person’s goals are affected by a situation.
Situations that are evaluated to serve personal goals, lead to positive emotions and situations that oppose personal goals elicit negative emotions. The second step is called secondary appraisal. In this step, the person evaluates if there are solutions for a problem to avoid harm
and accordingly adjusts attitude or behaviour (Lazarus, 1991).
Combining cognitive appraisal and the different underlying patterns of discrete emotions with information processing, Nabi (1999) suggests a Cognitive-Functional Model. Overall, specifically negative emotions motivate people to process information more thoroughly because a problem arises which conflicts with their goals. This problem must be addressed to overcome the conflict with their goals. Depending on the emotion, an underlying pattern is activated that either leads to an approach or avoidance reaction. Hence, depending on the information and the emotion it elicits, people are willing to engage to a certain extent with the information, think about the situation that evokes the emotion and think about what could be a solution to the problem (Nabi, 1999). In relation to climate change information, it has been found that creating cognitive dissonance with negative emotions helps to promote
environmental behavioural change (Osbaldiston & Schott, 2012). Therefore, it is important to decide which emotions to use in this research that fit the food waste issue and can be induced by a stimulus.
Guilt
The first emotion that will be included in this study is guilt. Findings show that morals as well as a feeling of guilt were relevant when consumers waste food (Stancu, Haugaard & Lähteenmäli, 2016). The emotion guilt is one of the most personal emotions because it does not only lead to self-evaluation; it is also linked to our relationships with others. When a rule is broken, guilt leads us to evaluate ourselves and adjust our behaviour so that we can see ourselves in a favourable light. It is therefore a “self-conscious” as well as a “moral” emotion (Tangney & Dearing, 2002). A person feeling guilty occurs when he or she behaves in a way that breaches personal moral standards and even more so, if the behaviour means a
disadvantage for an “innocent other”. Feeling guilty does not necessarily require an actual breach of a moral standard but it is enough when the breach is fantasised. Furthermore, the
harmed person does not have to be physically present for another person to feel guilty (Lazarus, 1991). As a consequence of this breach, guilt will encourage people to repair the damage or apologise.
Research using guilt appeals finds that they increase donation intentions and actual
donations (Basil, Ridgway & Basil, 2006; Basil, Ridgway & Basil, 2008) and have a positive influence on compliance (Carlsmith & Gross, 1969; Boster et al., 1999). In the context of environmental behaviour, research finds that guilt and anticipated guilt promotes pro-environmental behaviour, especially in connection with reparation suggestions (Duhachek, Agrawal & Han, 2012; Mallett, 2012; Graton, Rich & Gonzalez, 2016). Further results concerning climate change suggest that guilt appeals mediate problem awareness, personal norms, environmental concern and environmental belief on pro-environmental behaviour and behavioural intention (Bamberg & Möser, 2007; Ferguson & Branscombe, 2010; Elgaaied, 2012; Onwezen, Antonides & Bartels, 2013).
Enthusiasm
Certain negative emotions like fear are widely researched whereas positive emotions have been more or less overlooked (for an exception see e.g. Verkuyten, 2004; Griskevicius, Shiota & Neufeld, 2010; Lecheler, Bos & Vliegenthart, 2015). This is due to the assumption that positive emotions in messages do not create dissonance and people process the information less deeply (Nabi, 1999). However, positive psychology suggests that positive emotions can lead to “psychological growth and improved well-being over time” (Frederickson, 2001). Therefore, the positive counterpart emotion used in this research is enthusiasm. The emotion is primarily used in political communication research in connection to election campaigns. Enthusiasm gives people not only a feeling of sympathy but it leads to “sharing convictions and commitment to common endeavours” and “enthusiasts throw[ing] themselves into the cause” (Marcus & Mackuen, 1993).
In previous research, enthusiasm has been found to have the same underlying patterns as anger and the same appraisals, “certainty and control” (Marcus & Mackuen, 1993; Lerner & Keltner, 2001). This means that enthusiasm should encourage behavioural change as opposed to a withdrawal from the situation. In the case of pro-environmental behaviour, it should encourage the feeling that a change of actions helps to solve the problem (Valentino et al., 2011). Studies have mixed findings concerning enthusiasm. They suggest that enthusiasm appeals can change opinions, voting preferences, increase interest, loyalty and participation in general (Marcus & McKuen, 1993; Brader, 2005; Valentino et al., 2011; Lecheler, Schuck & de Vreese, 2013). However, other results indicate that people only claimed to be more interested when they took less time to process information or enthusiasm did not have any effect on political participation at all (Valentino et al., 2008; Weber, 2012). Following the findings that enthusiasm can generate behavioural change regarding a politician, it is assumed that enthusiasm can generate behavioural change for a certain cause, such as food waste.
The emotional flow theory
To overcome the demobilising effect of certain emotions, Nabi (2015) formulates the concept of emotional flow. She argues that a message organised in different sequences that invokes different emotions, could be more persuasive than a message only invoking one single emotion. In relation to guilt, Nabi argues that the emotional flow message could be helpful, since findings indicate that the stronger the guilt appeal, the less persuasive the message. Therefore, a shift in emotion that counters the avoidance reaction could be helpful. Preliminary evidence with mixed messages shows that shifts from positive to negative emotions in one message or vice versa have a bigger effect than the use of a single emotion (Carrera, Muñoz & Caballero, 2010; Mukherjee & Dubé, 2012). Combining two or more emotions in one message is likely to bridge problems between information processing and following behaviour, because it bridges the avoidance reaction of the one emotion, by flowing
into a second emotion with an approach pattern that encourages behavioural change (Nabi, 2015).
Following this argumentation, different messages were created using guilt or enthusiasm as discrete emotions and guilt and enthusiasm as an emotional flow message. Hence, it is expected that:
H1: The emotional flow messages have a more positive effect on food waste
attitude/behavioural intentions than the messages only including enthusiasm or guilt.
Narrative
Additionally to explaining how emotional flow messages are more persuasive than single emotion messages, Nabi (2015) goes one step further. She argues that narratives, stories that zoom in on a specific character, tells their struggles and how to overcome them, are especially suitable for an emotional flow message. It is argued that narratives with an emotional flow can secure attention, help identification with the character, transportation into the story and show the character as a role model, thus making the message more effective than informative and single emotion messages (Nabi & Green, 2015). In edutainment and health
communication research, a growing body of literature confirms that narratives have persuasive power (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008), whereas in the context of political communication results of studies that research the effect of narratives in the context of episodic framing are mixed (Gross, 2008; Aarøe, 2011; Hart, 2011). Consequently, for my research a definition of a narrative is needed to evaluate if persuasive communication and political communication understand the concept in the same way.
A narrative and an episodic frame are similar but they are not the same. A narrative, as used in persuasive communication, is a story that includes characters, plot and causal
& Beentjes, 2009; Sukalla, Bilandzic, Bolls & Busselle, 2015). An episodic frame, as used in political communication, is a case that is used to show a specific example of a social
phenomenon (Iyengar, 1990; Gross, 2008; Matthes, 2009; Aarøe, 2011; Hart, 2011). Shen, Ahern and Baker (2014) establish the concept of a narrative frame as opposed to an informational frame in news coverage that includes “rhetorical structures” and “stylistic devices”. They define narrative in the persuasive communication way: A story, in which problems arise that are solved by characters and therefore enable the reader to immerse into a story. This should lead to identification with the characters and an enhanced emotional reaction, which in turn influences attitudes. Their study on issue environmental attitudes shows that narrative news frames had a significantly greater impact on issue attitudes than informational news. Following their findings the concept of narrative news framing by Shen, Ahern and Baker (2014) will be used in this study. Furthermore, research in edutainment shows that narratives increased the motivation for climate change action (Lowe et al., 2006; Beattie, Sale & McGuire, 2011; Howell, 2014). Consequently, it is expected that:
H2: The messages embedded in a narrative news frame lead to a more positive food waste attitude/ behavioural intentions than the messages embedded in an informational news frame.
Connecting this to Nabi’s (2015) argument that emotional flow messages embedded in a narrative should be especially effective, it is expected that:
H3: The emotional flow message embedded in a narrative news frame leads to a more positive food waste attitude/behavioural intentions than the messages that are embedded in a informational news frame but only include a single emotion.
Emotions as mediators
In political communication, research finds that the effects of news frames often depend on the emotional reaction of people (Gross & D’Ambrosio, 2004; Aarøe, 2011). Results indicate
that different news frames influence the emotional response, which in turn influences attitudes and opinions (Gross, 2008; Aarøe, 2011; Lecheler, Schuck & de Vreese, 2013; Lecheler, Bos & Vliegenthart, 2015). Hence, emotions work as mediators between news frames and
people’s attitudes. Consequently, it is assumed that emotional appeals in messages should affect the readers’ emotional reaction similar to news frames, which in turn should influence their food waste attitude and behavioural intention (Shen, Ahern & Baker, 2014).
Combining this with Nabi’s (2015) argument and the preliminary evidence that emotional flow messages are more effective than single emotion messages (e.g. Carrera, Muñoz & Caballero, 2010), it is expected that:
H4: The emotional flow messages intensify the emotional reaction more than the guilt messages, which in turn have a more positive effect on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions.
Moreover, Nabi (2015) suggests that narratives are especially suitable for increasing emotional response. This is supported by Gross’s (2008) and Aarøe’s (2011) findings, that an episodic frame leads to a higher emotional response than an informative frame. Hence, it is expected, that:
H5: The narrative emotional flow message intensifies the emotional reaction more than the informational emotional flow message, which in turn has a more positive effect on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions.
Method Sample
To recruit participants for this study, I posted the survey on my Facebook profile and participated in different groups, in which students fill out each other’s surveys, for example through the website surveycircle.com. Furthermore, I sent personal messages and E-Mails to
my family, friends and acquaintances. The data was collected from the 19th of December 2016 until the 05th of January 2017. Consequently, my sample was a convenience one as well as a snowball sample. For my sample, I recruited German speakers, as the survey was in German. As an incentive to participate in my study, I donated 50 cents per respondent to Doctors Without Borders.
Participants
In total, 417 respondents were recruited (Nrecruited = 417). 92 responses were deleted
because the respondents did not finish the questionnaire and five responses were deleted because the respondents were younger than 18 years old. The total number of respondents in the sample was 320 (Ntotal = 320). The average age of the sample was 34 (M = 34.38, SD =
14.21). More women (n = 199) than men (n = 121) took part in the experiment. The majority of respondents lives in Germany (n = 304) and holds a Bachelor Degree (n = 91) or a general qualification for university entrance (n = 83).
Design
To establish the effectiveness of emotional flow messages, compared to single emotion messages on food waste attitudes and behavioural intention, an experiment was conducted. The design was an in-between subjects experiment with a pre- and a post-test. The study was a real experiment, because it included two control groups (see below). The experiment had two factors. The first one was the emotional appeal with three different groups. The first group was guilt only, the second group was enthusiasm only and the third group was the emotional flow (i.e. guilt and enthusiasm). The second factor was the text form, where the text was either framed in an informational or narrative way. In total, the experiment included eight groups, three emotional messages in an informational condition and three emotional messages in a narrative condition. As control groups, I had one informational condition and one narrative condition without any emotional appeal. The experiment was conducted online
through the platform Qualtrics. The study was pretested with the stimuli of the emotional appeal articles in the narrative and informational condition to check the manipulation. During the test 60 people filled in the questionnaire, ten per condition. The analysis of the pre-tests showed that the differences between the conditions were only small. Therefore, the manipulation check questions were adjusted after the pre-test.
The survey started with an introduction stating that the issue of food waste was the topic of the study. Afterwards, the respondent’s personality, political orientation and attitude towards environmental problems were assessed. Subsequently, respondents were asked four factual questions concerning the topic of food waste, then about their food waste attitude and shopping behaviour. This was followed by the stimulus. Afterwards, the manipulation check questions as well as the emotion questions were included in the questionnaire. If the
respondents were in the narrative conditions they were asked questions about identification with the characters. Following, respondents were asked about their food waste attitude and food preparation behaviour. Lastly, they had to fill in their social-demographics. The survey finished with the debriefing. All questions were the same for all eight groups, apart from the identification questions, and randomised to avoid bias. The whole experiment took between 15 to 20 minutes to complete.
I decided to conduct an experiment due to its high internal validity and the possibility to control what respondents saw. That way, I was able to identify the influence of the emotions induced through the different articles on the respondents’ food waste attitude and behavioural intention.
Stimulus
To assess the effect of emotionally enhanced NGO messages on people’s food waste attitude and behavioural intentions, I constructed eight different articles using information from the WWF Germany website and studies concerning food waste in Germany (for sources
see Appendix B). All versions were based upon the control groups that determined the facts used. The emotions guilt and enthusiasm were induced through using adjectives, verbs and nouns associated with the emotions. In the enthusiasm conditions, sentences had to be added to induce an enthusiastic feeling about the problem. However, the information content across conditions was kept constant to the extent possible. The emotional flow messages were constructed by using roughly half the text of the guilt condition (first part) and roughly half the text of the enthusiasm condition (second part), to keep the information the same. All articles had a heading fitting their condition and the same background picture to eliminate the picture as source for differences between the groups. All articles had the same layout, which looked like a blog entry in an online blog. For that matter the blog of the NGO “NIDZ - Nachhaltig in die Zukunft” was created with Word Press. Screen shots of the website were used, to make the articles look as authentic as possible (see Appendix C).
The first four articles with the informational frame presented the food waste problem as a systemic problem in Germany including statistics. Furthermore, it described how people waste food and how this affects the environment, the climate and people in less developed countries. The text ended with suggestions what people can do to prevent food waste (see Appendix B).
The other four articles were in the format of a personal narrative. The story followed a fictional character, Charlotte, and her transition from wasting food to realising that she needs to change her behaviour. In the text, the facts above were described as actions that Charlotte takes relating to food waste. The story ended with recommendations what Charlotte can do to reduce her food waste, to ensure that the recommendation part was present in all
manipulations (see Appendix B).
Measures
variables in my study were the different emotional appeals and the text format in the eight different articles, as described above. The articles were constructed on the basis of different studies defining narrative and informational framing and emotional appeals (Nabi & Green, 2015; Shen, Ahern & Baker, 2014; Lecheler, Schuck & de Vreese, 2013).
Dependent variables: food waste attitude and behavioural intentions. As I could not find satisfying scales for food waste attitudes in the existing research, I collected scales from different papers (Bieri et al., 2014; Neff, Spiker & Truant, 2015; Stancu, Haugaard & Kähteenmäki, 2015; Qi & Roe, 2016) and included all items in the study. The food waste attitude variable was created with a factor analysis using all items collected from the literature. They were included in a Principal Component Factor Analysis (PCA). For the Factor Analysis five items were recoded, so that all items had the same direction. The result of the Factor Analysis was two factors with Eigenvalues above one (Eigenvalue = 3.16; Eigenvalue = 1.50). The items were rotated with an Oblique rotation (Direct Oblimin), as they were assumed to be related (see APPENDIX A). This led to one factor with six items
explaining 26.31 per cent of the variance and one factor with four items explaining 12.52 per cent. Afterwards, one measure for post – test food waste attitude was computed including five items, which was reliable (M = 6.00, SD = 0.76, α = .745). The second factor did not yield a reliable scale as it was below α = .60 and was therefore not used in the analysis. All items in the post-test food waste variable were measured on a seven point Likert scale from
completely disagree (1) to completely agree (7) (see Appendix C).
To measure food waste behavioural intentions in the post-test the food preparation
behaviour of the respondents was measured. All items were based on Neff, Spiker and Truant (2015). They were translated into German and shortened for the study. Food preparation behaviour was measured with seven items (M = 5.10, SD = 0.79, α = .760) on a seven-point Likert scale from never (1) to always (7) (see Appendix C).
Mediators: emotions. To measure which emotions the respondents felt while reading the text, they were asked to indicate how strongly they felt the six different emotions guilt (M = 3.79, SD = 1.43, α = .728), shame (M = 3.27, SD = 1.48, α = .729), anger (M = 3.64, SD = 1.64, α = .852), sadness (M = 3.98, SD = 1.59, α = .809), hope (M = 3.11, SD = 1.36, α = .839) and enthusiasm (M = 2.45, SD = 1.23, α = .750). Each emotion was measured with two questions on a Likert scale from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (7) (see
Appendix C).
Results
To analyse the effect of emotional flow messages and single emotion messages on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions SPSS 22 (Mac version) was used.
Demographics
In the informational condition most people were randomly assigned to the enthusiasm condition (n = 41), almost the same number of respondents was randomly assigned to the guilt condition (n = 40), slightly less people were randomly assigned to the emotional flow condition (n = 38) and the least people were randomly assigned to the control condition (n = 37). In the narrative condition most people were randomly assigned either to the control condition (n = 42) or the emotional flow condition (n = 42). As many respondents were randomly assigned to the guilt condition (n = 40) as to the enthusiasm condition (n = 40).
Randomisation
To check if the groups differed significantly a randomisation check was carried out. A variable with the eight different groups was used as independent variable and the variables gender and age were used as dependent variables. The results showed that the groups did not significantly differ in gender, (7) = 12.997, p = .072. (See table Appendix A). Furthermore, a one-way ANOVA showed that the groups did not differ significantly with regard to age, F
(7,312) = 1.46, p = .180. Thus, randomisation was successful (see table Appendix A).
Manipulation check
To check if respondents perceived the emotional flow as intended the different groups were recoded into four groups depending on the emotional appeal. In the analysis this variable was used as independent variable and the question how much respondents perceived an emotional flow (i.e., a shift from one emotional experience to another), on a scale from one to seven, was used as dependent variable. The one-way ANOVA showed a significant difference between the different conditions and how much they perceived a flow from negative to
positive emotion in the expected direction, F(3,316) = 2.80, p = .040. The Bonferroni post-test showed that the respondents in the emotional flow condition perceived the emotional flow significantly more than the respondents in the guilt condition (Mdifference = 0.78, p = .041). The
respondents in the emotional flow groups (M = 4.15, SD = 1.73) perceived the flow the most, followed by the respondents in the enthusiasm groups (M = 3.69, SD = 1.73). The respondents in the control groups (M = 3.52, SD = 1.85) perceived the emotional flow even less and the emotional flow was perceived the least by the respondents in the guilt conditions (M = 3.38, SD = 1.88). Hence, the manipulation check was successful, the respondents perceived the emotional appeal as intended, even if not all groups differed significantly. This will be further discussed in the limitations.
To check if the different groups perceived the text form as intended, the different groups were recoded into one group that included all conditions that read the informational article and a second group with all conditions that read the narrative text, which was used as
independent variable. After the stimulus, the respondents were asked if the text was presented with general information (1) or specific information including specific characters (10) on a scale from one to ten, which was used as dependent variable. The independent samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference in how the respondents perceived the texts in
the expected direction, t(318) = -19.74, p < .001, 95% CI [-6.35, -5.20]. Most respondents in the narrative conditions (M = 9.20, SD = 2.52) identified the text to include specific
information whereas most respondents in the informational conditions (M = 3.43, SD = 2.71) identified the article to include general information. Consequently, the manipulation check worked and the respondents perceived the text formats as intended.
Main effect
To test the first hypothesis that the emotional flow messages had a more positive effect on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions, the second hypothesis, that the narrative messages led to a more positive food waste attitude and behavioural intentions than the informational messages and the third hypothesis that the emotional flow message embedded in a narrative led to a more positive food waste attitude and behavioural intentions than the single emotion messages embedded in a narrative, a one-way ANOVA was conducted.
The first one-way ANOVA was conducted with variable including all eight conditions separately as independent variable and food waste attitude as dependent variable. It showed that the emotional appeal and the text form did not have a significant effect on the food waste attitude of the respondents, F(7,312) = 0.78, p = .603. For the individual means see the table below.
Table 1: food waste attitude of the different conditions
Mean Standard Deviation N
Informational guilt 6.10 0.77 40 Informational enthusiasm 6.01 0.71 41 Informational emotional flow 5.88 0.79 38
Informational control group 5.93 0.74 37 Narrative guilt 6.13 0.69 40 Narrative enthusiasm 6.10 0.83 40 Narrative emotional flow 5.83 0.93 42 Narrative control group 6.03 0.58 42
To check the difference between the means that showed the most difference and had the same text form, an independent sample t-test was conducted. A variable with the guilt and emotional flow conditions was created and used as independent variable. Food waste attitude was used as dependent variable. The analysis showed that there was a small to moderate but significant difference between the food waste attitude of the guilt and the emotional flow conditions not in the expected direction, t(158) = 2.04, p = .043, 95% CI [0.01, 0.61], d = .33 . The respondents in the guilt conditions (M = 6.11, SD = 0.72) had a more positive food waste attitude than the respondents in the emotional flow conditions (M = 5.85, SD = 0.86).
The second one-way ANOVA was conducted with the eight conditions as independent variable and food waste behavioural intentions as dependent variable. It showed that the emotional appeal and the text form did not have a significant effect on food waste behavioural intentions, F(7,312) = 0.29, p = .957. For the individual means see the table below.
Table 2: food waste behavioural intentions of the different conditions
Mean Standard Deviation N
Informational guilt 5.19 0.86 40
enthusiasm Informational emotional flow 5.08 0.72 38 Informational control group 5.02 0.89 37 Narrative guilt 5.13 0.70 40 Narrative enthusiasm 5.12 0.79 40 Narrative emotional flow 5.06 0.74 42 Narrative control group 4.97 0.88 42
Consequently, the first three hypotheses had to be rejected. The emotional flow messages did not have a more positive effect on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions. Actually, respondents in the guilt conditions had a significantly more positive food waste attitude than the respondents in the emotional flow conditions. The food waste attitude among the respondents in the emotional flow conditions was the most negative out of the food waste attitude of respondents in all the groups, including the control conditions. Concerning behavioural intentions, the respondents in the emotional flow conditions had the weakest behavioural intentions out of all the behavioural intentions of respondents in the emotionally framed conditions; only the respondents in the two control conditions had weaker food waste behavioural intentions. Furthermore, it did not make a difference if the respondents read the informational or the narrative article neither was the narrative emotional flow message the most effective message.
Mediation effect
To investigate the fourth hypothesis that the emotional flow messages led to a higher emotional response, which led to a more positive effect on food waste attitude and
behavioural intentions mediation analyses with model four in PROCESS (Hayes, 2016) were conducted. The tool was used with 2000 bootstrap samples to reduce the bias in the
confidence intervals in the sample. As Kappa squared is disabled in the updated version of PROCESS, the standardized effect size of the mediation was reported instead, to interpret the results (Preacher & Kelley, 2011). The independent variable in the analysis were the guilt conditions, coded as zero, and the emotional flow conditions, coded as one. As mediators the six different emotions, guilt, shame, anger, hope, enthusiasm and sadness, were used. For the analysis the two dependent variables food waste attitude and behavioural intentions were used.
The mediation analyses showed a significant indirect effect of the emotional flow
conditions compared to the guilt conditions via the emotion sadness on food waste attitude, b = -.07, BCa CI [-0.19, -0.01]. This represents a relatively small negative indirect effect, abcs =
-.044, 95% BCa CI [-0.11, -0.01]. Compared to the guilt conditions the emotional flow conditions decreased the feeling of sadness among respondents (b = -0.51, p = .046), which led to a more negative food waste attitude, since there was a positive relation between sadness and food waste attitude (b = 0.14, p < .001). The emotions guilt, shame, anger, hope and enthusiasm did not work as mediators between the emotionally framed messages and food waste attitude, guilt, b = -0.03, BCa CI [-0.13, 0.01]; shame, b = -0.01, BCa CI [-0.08, 0.01]; anger, b = -0.06, BCa CI [-0.16, 0.01]; hope, b = 0.01, BCa CI [-0.05, 0.06]; enthusiasm, b = 0.01, BCa CI [-0.03, 0.06].
Further, the mediation analyses showed that guilt, shame, anger, sadness, hope and
enthusiasm did not work as mediators between the guilt conditions compared to the emotional flow conditions and food waste behavioural intentions, guilt, b = 0.04, BCa CI [-0.01, 0.14]; shame, b = 0.04, BCa CI [0.01, 0.14]; anger, b = 0.02, BCa CI [0.09, 0.01], sadness, b = -0.02, BCa CI [-0.10, 0.01], hope, b = -0.03, BCa CI [-0.11, 0.01]; enthusiasm, b = 0.01, BCa CI [-0.02, 0.06].
The fourth hypothesis that the emotional flow messages would elicit a higher emotional response than the guilt only messages, which would have a positive effect on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions could not be accepted. The only significant indirect effect that could be identified was that the emotional flow messages compared to the guilt messages led to significantly lower levels of sadness. This led to a more negative food waste attitude, since the emotion sadness showed to have a positive impact on food waste attitude.
emotional response than the informational emotional flow messages, which had an influence on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions, mediation analyses with model four in PROCESS (Hayes, 2016) were conducted. Since the sample size of the conditions was half of the one used in the mediation analyses before, it was used with 5000 bootstrap samples and a 90 per cent confidence interval to ensure a reduced bias in the confidence intervals in the sample. As Kappa squared is disabled in the updated version of PROCESS, the standardized effect size of the mediation was reported instead, to interpret the results (Preacher & Kelley, 2011). The independent variable in the analyses was the informational emotional flow condition, coded as zero, compared to the narrative emotional flow condition, coded as one. As mediators the indirect effect of the six different emotions was analysed. Food waste attitude and behavioural intentions were used as dependent variables in the analyses.
The mediation analyses showed a significant indirect effect of the narrative emotional flow message via the emotion guilt on food waste attitude, compared to the informational
emotional flow message, b = -0.14, BCa CI [-0.31, -0.04]. This represents a small negative indirect effect, abcs = -.083, 90% BCa CI [-0.18, -0.03]. Compared to the informational
emotional flow condition, the narrative emotional flow condition decreased the feeling of guilt among respondents (b = -0.73, p = .018), which led to a more negative food waste attitude, since there was a positive relation between guilt and food waste attitude (b = 0.19, p = .007). The emotions shame, anger, sadness, hope and enthusiasm did not work as mediators between the emotionally framed messages and food waste attitude, shame, b = 0.015, BCa CI [-0.07, 0.15]; b = -0.11, BCa CI [-0.28, -0.02]; sadness, b = -0.11, BCa CI [-0.27, -0.01]; hope, b = -0.01, BCa CI [-0.08, 0.03]; enthusiasm, b = 0.02, BCa CI [-0.01, 0.13].
Lastly, the mediation analyses showed a significant indirect effect of the narrative emotional flow message compared to the informational emotional flow message via the emotion guilt on food waste behavioural intentions, b = 0.09, BCa CI [0.02, 0.22]. This represents a small positive indirect effect, abcs = .064, 90% BCa CI [0.01, 0.15]. Compared to
the informational emotional flow condition the narrative emotional flow condition decreased the feeling of guilt among respondents (b = -.73, p = .018), which led to a stronger food waste behavioural intentions, since there was a negative relation between guilt and food waste behavioural intentions (b = -0.13, p = .040). Furthermore, the analyses showed a significant indirect effect of the narrative emotional flow message via the emotion shame on food waste behavioural intentions, compared to the informational emotional flow message, b = 0.15, BCa CI [0.04, 0.30]. This represents a positive medium indirect effect, abcs = .101, 90% BCa CI
[0.03, 0.20]. The narrative emotional flow message reduced, in comparison to the
informational emotional flow message, the feeling of shame among respondents (b = -0.83, p = .012), which led to stronger food waste behavioural intentions, since there was a negative
relation between shame and food waste behavioural intentions (b = -0.18, p = .002). The emotions anger, sadness, hope and enthusiasm did not work as mediators between the narrative emotional flow condition and food waste behavioural intentions, anger, b = -0.03, BCa CI 0.14, 0.01]; sadness, b = -0.02, BCa CI 0.10, 0.02]; hope, b = -0.01, BCa CI [-0.05, 0.02]; enthusiasm, b = 0.01, BCa CI [-0.01, 0.12].
The fifth hypothesis, that the narrative emotional flow message would lead to a higher emotional reaction compared to the informational emotional flow message, which would have a positive effect on food waste attitude and behavioural intentions had to be rejected. The analyses showed that the narrative emotional flow message led to significantly lower levels of guilt and shame among respondents. In the case of food waste attitude this led to a more negative food waste attitude, since guilt had a positive influence on food waste attitude. In case of behavioural intentions this led to stronger food waste behavioural intentions, since guilt and shame had a negative effect on food waste behavioural intentions.
Discussion
In emotion research, a relatively new path researches the effect of mixed emotional messages and the new theoretical model of the so-called emotional flow that includes two or more discrete emotions in one message (Carrera, Muñoz & Caballero, 2010; Mukherjee & Dubé, 2012; Nabi, 2015; Nabi & Green, 2015). Following these new developments, this study tested the effectiveness of emotional flow (i.e. from negative to positive) messages compared to single emotional messages. Therefore, an experiment with eight different conditions including different emotional appeals and text forms was conducted.
Implications
The results showed that the emotional flow messages led to a more negative food waste attitude and behavioural intentions among the respondents in the emotional flow conditions
than the single emotional messages among the respondents in the other conditions. However, only the food waste attitude of the respondents in the guilt conditions was significantly more positive than the food waste attitude of the respondents in the emotional flow conditions. This finding is contrary to the theoretical expectations of the emotional flow theory by Nabi
(2015). She argues that emotional flow messages should be more persuasive than messages including a single emotion, because the flow from one emotion into another should help to overcome the demobilising effect of negative emotions. Furthermore, it contrasts preliminary evidence by Carrera, Muñoz and Caballero (2010), who showed that messages that include a negative and a positive emotion were more effective than messages including a single emotion. However, the current findings support earlier research such as Carrera, Muñoz and Caballero (2010) that different emotional appeals can lead to different effects.
The findings of the current study also imply that the positive emotion, enthusiasm, did not lead to attitudinal or behavioural change in the emotional flow message. This is in line with Brader’s (2005) finding that enthusiasm led people to stick to their habits rather than change their behaviour. Hence, these findings might explain why the emotional flow was not
effective in the current study.
Moreover, this study provided a detailed view of the emotional response of the respondents. The mediation analyses showed that the emotional flow messages could decrease negative emotions, such as sadness and guilt. This is in line with the emotional flow theory, in which Nabi (2015) argues that emotional flow messages can decrease demobilising emotions, such as guilt and sadness. However, these negative emotions had a positive effect on the food waste attitude of respondents. This ultimately led to a more negative food waste attitude in the emotional flow conditions. This is in line with Duhachek, Agrawal and Han’s (2012) finding that guilt led to greater message effectiveness when it was paired with a gain frame.
current study. The recommendation part in the emotional flow messages was enhanced with enthusiasm, which might have led to a positive effect of guilt instead of enthusiasm.
Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that the emotional appeal messages were not necessarily mediated by the discrete emotion induced in the message, as for example the emotional flow messages including guilt and enthusiasm, which were mediated by sadness. This is in line with Nabi’s (2015) argument that emotions do not occur isolated but in connection with other feelings and could therefore be more effective as emotional flow messages.
Lastly, The mediation analyses showed that the emotional flow messages with a narrative news frame significantly decreased guilt and shame, compared to the informational emotional flow message. Ultimately, this led to stronger food waste behavioural intentions of the
respondents, since guilt and shame had a negative influence on behavioural intentions. However, this finding implies that the identification with the character in the story did not work. Hence, the respondents did not project the problem on themselves. This led to a decreased feeling of guilt and shame of the respondents in the narrative emotional flow condition compared to the respondents’ feeling of guilt and shame in the informational emotional flow condition. This finding is contrary to the assumption of Shen, Ahern and Baker (2014) that narrative news framing leads to identification, as well as Nabi and Green’s (2015) assumption that emotional flow messages increase the identification with a character.
Limitations
Like all research, this study has some limitations. First of all, the sample was a
convenience and snowball sample. This means that the results are not representative for the German population and not all Germans had the same probability to be part of the sample. Secondly, due to the research design a generalisation of the effects of emotional flow
messages is not possible but stays limited to this particular research in the food waste context. Thirdly, since the stimuli were designed to be as close to reality as possible, the manipulation check, how much the respondents perceived the emotional flow, only yielded significant differences between the respondents in the emotional flow conditions and the respondents in the guilt conditions. Since there is no established manipulation check for emotional flow messages, I designed the measure myself. However, the results of the manipulation check showed that the measure was not ideal and needs further research. Furthermore, the positive emotion, enthusiasm, did not yield any effect in the emotional flow message. This could be due to the fact that more than half of the emotional flow message was induced with guilt and less than half with enthusiasm. Lastly, the narrative conditions did not lead to identification with the character in the story. Reasons for this could be that the story was kept as short as possible and the information used was very broad.
Conclusion
To answer the central research question of the current study, emotional flow messages were not more effective in influencing food waste attitude and behavioural attention than messages including a single emotion.
The detailed picture of the role and function of different discrete emotional reactions showed that emotional flow messages could for example decrease negative feelings. Thus, emotional flow messages could be effective with regards to outcomes for which such a decrease in negative emotions would have relevant consequences, as for example behavioural intentions in the current study. Furthermore, the mediation showed that discrete emotions did not necessarily occur alone but in connection to related emotions. Hence, emotional flow messages could be more effective when they induce not only one but more emotions that are connected to each other.
message. Neither did the tested positive emotions work as mediators. Hence, further research is needed that compares different positive emotions, to research the conditions under which they could be successful in an emotional flow message.
The narrative news framing of the food waste issue did not lead to identification with the character in the current study. However, emotional flow messages in the form of a video could possibly lead to more identification and a more effective emotional flow, since it takes less time to connect people to the character and to reach them emotionally. Moreover, communication will most likely move towards videos, as the WWF campaigner implied (see Appendix D). Hence, this would be another direction for further research concerning
emotional flow messages.
Based on the results of this study no definitive implications for campaigners in the food waste context are possible without further research. Even though the gap between
environmental attitude and behaviour still persists, this study showed that different discrete emotional appeals can have different effects, are mediated by discrete emotions and that successful emotional flow messages could be possible since one emotion does not necessarily occur alone.
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Appendix Appendix A
Principal Component Analysis (PCA).
Table 1: Factor analysis for food waste attitude
Component
1 2
Lebensmittelverschwendung schadet unserer Umwelt.
Lebensmittelverschwendung hat einen Einfluss darauf, wie die Ressourcen in unserer Welt verteilt sind.
Lebensmittelverschwendung ist gleichzeitig Geldverschwendung.
Lebensmittel wegzuwerfen ist nicht notwendig damit Mahlzeiten wichtig schmecken.
Lebensmittelverschwendung kann reduziert werden, wenn Haushalte mehr im Voraus planen.
Es werden mehr Lebensmittel weggeworfen,
.784
.599
.672
wenn sie in großen Verpackungen im Angebot sind.
Ich kann einen Unterschied machen, wenn ich weniger Lebensmittelabfälle produziere. Es gibt wichtigere Probleme in unserem Land als Lebensmittelverschwendung. (R)
Ich möchte nur frische Lebensmittel essen. (R) Ich mache mir keine Sorgen um die Menge an Lebensmitteln die ich wegwerfe. (R)
Lebensmittel wegzuwerfen ist manchmal notwendig, weil ich mir Sorgen um Erkrankungen mache. (R)
Mein Haushalt verschwendet mehr Lebensmittel als Andere. (R)
.449 .720 .690 .510 .693 .544 On a scale from one (completely disagree) to seven (completely agree)
Demographics.
Table 2: Gender of the different groups
Group Male Female Total
Guilt informational 9 31 40 Enthusiasm informational 22 19 41 Emotional flow informational 15 23 38 Control informational 15 22 37 Guilt narrative 19 21 40 Enthusiasm narrative 10 30 40 Emotional flow narrative 15 27 42 Control narrative 16 26 42
Randomisation.
Table 3: Age of the different groups
Group Mean Standard Deviation N
Guilt informational 35.90 13.96 40 Enthusiasm informational 35.76 15.31 41 Emotional flow informational 36.92 13.42 38 Control group informational 32.59 14.12 37 Guilt narrative 35.60 15.48 40 Enthusiasm narrative 32.53 12.69 40 Emotional flow narrative 36.60 16.34 42 Narrative group narrative 29.24 11.03 42
Appendix B
Example for informative article based on control condition. The guilt manipulation are underlined sentences, enthusiasm condition are sentences in italics. Margins changed due to format
Sources for all conditions:
Kranert, M., Hafner, G., Barabosz, J., Schuller, H., Leverenz, D., & Kölbig, A. (2012). Ermittlung der weggeworfenen Lebensmittelmengen und Vorschläge zur Verminderung der Wegwerfrate bei Lebensmitteln in Deutschland. Retrieved online:
http://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/Ernaehrung/WvL/Studie_Lebensmittelabfaell e_Langfassung.pdf?__blob=publicationFile .
Noleppa, S., & Cartsburg, M. (2015). Das Grosse Wegschmeissen. Vom Acker bis zum Verbraucher: Ausmaß und Umwelteffekte der Lebensmittelverschwendung in
Deutschland. Retrieved online: https://www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/Publikationen-PDF/WWF_Studie_Das_grosse_Wegschmeissen.pdf.
WWF (2015). Tonnen für die Tonne. Retrieved online: http://www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/landwirtschaft/ernaehrung-konsum/verschwendung/.
Headings in guilt, enthusiasm and emotional flow conditions:
Guilt condition: Unsere massive Lebensmittelverschwendung in Deutschland ist besorgniserregend
Enthusiasm condition: Begeisterung über Reduzierung von Lebensmittelverschwendung in Deutschland steigt
Im Allgemeinen sind die Deutschen der Meinung, dass sie zur Lösung von Umweltproblemen beitragen können. Ein wirklicher Wandel in Zeiten von unnötigem Lebensmittelabfall geht aber nur langsam voran. (Tatsächlich ändern wir nur wenig an unserem
Verhalten und riskieren durch unsere massive
Lebensmittelverschwendung unsere Zukunft.; Ein wirklicher Wandel geht Schritt
für Schritt. Deswegen sollten wir alle bewusst mit Lebensmitteln umgehen und Freude am Essen finden, um Lebensmittelverschwendung zu stoppen und unsere Zukunft zu retten.)
Die Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Essen hat sich seit der Industrialisierung verändert. Heute leben wir in einer hektischen Welt, in der in Ländern wie Deutschland, Konsumenten nur einen kleinen Teil ihres Einkommens für Essen aufwenden. Supermärkte bieten zu jeder Zeit alles was man braucht.
In Deutschland werden ungefähr 46 Prozent an Lebensmitteln entsorgt, weil Menschen der Meinung sind, dass sie nicht mehr frisch genug sind. Man möchte nicht das Gleiche ein paar Tage hintereinander essen. Man möchte mehr Auswahl oder Lebensmittel werden weggeworfen um Platz für neue Produkte zu schaffen. 35 Prozent der essbaren Lebensmittel landen in der Mülltonne, weil zu viel eingekauft wurde.
Entlang der Produktionskette von Lebensmitteln, gibt es generelle Verluste, die nicht vermieden werden können. Aber die meisten noch essbaren Lebensmittel werden von Konsumenten weggeworfen. Jedes Jahr könnten pro Person 61 kg Lebensmittelabfälle eingespart werden. Diese Zahl beinhaltet nur das Essen, das in Supermärkten eingekauft und weggeworfen wird. (Jeder von uns verschwendet achtlos 61 Kg Lebensmittel pro Jahr, obwohl dies völlig unnötig ist. Diese Zahl beinhaltet nur das Essen, das wir in Supermärkten kaufen und dann gedankenlos wegschmeißen.; Jeder von uns hat das Potenzial jedes Jahr 61
