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Promoting Good Behavior: Does Social and Temporal Framing Make a Difference?

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Abstract

Social marketing research grows increasingly relevant in the face of persistent modern problems; this study examines how social and temporal framing might influence the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. By featuring diverse contexts, this study addresses both individual and prosocial behaviors. With a basis in self-referencing and psychological distance research, as well as social dilemma theory, the authors derive hypotheses about social and temporal framing effects. A between-subjects experiment, incorporated into an online survey among a large student sample, reveals the relevance of temporal framing for enhancing intentions to change both individual and prosocial behaviors. Social framing influences behavioral intentions especially in the prosocial condition. The category of behavior determines the effectiveness of social marketing related to that behavior. However, the small effect sizes and lack of globally interpretable effects indicate that social and temporal framing do not make relevant differences in social marketing effectiveness.

Résumé

Le marketing social gagne de l'importance face aux problèmes sociaux persistants. Cet article examine dans quelle mesure le framing social et le framing temporel ont une influence sur l'effectivité du marketing social. Le comportement individuel ainsi que le comportement prosocial sont analysés en utilisant divers sujets du marketing social. La recherche sur le point de référence, la distance psychologique et les dilemmes sociaux constituent la base des hypothèses. Une expérience incorporée dans un questionnaire en ligne montre l'impact du framing temporel sur l'intention de changer un comportement individuel ou prosocial. Les résultats indiquent que le framing social n'avait un impact que sur l'intention comportementale individuelle. La catégorie de comportement affectue l'efficacité du marketing social. Des effets faibles et le manque d'effets globalement interprétables mettent en lumière que le framing temporel ainsi que le framing social ne jouent pas de rôle décisif quant à l'efficacité du marketing social.

Zusammenfassung

Sozialmarketing gewinnt aufgrund andauernder gesellschaftlicher und sozialer Probleme an Bedeutung. Vor diesem Hintergrund beschäftigt sich die vorliegende Studie damit, inwiefern soziales und zeitliches Framing die Wirksamkeit von Sozialmarketing beeinflussen können. Anhand verschiedener Sozialmarketingthemen wird sowohl individuelles als auch prosoziales Verhalten untersucht. Basierend auf der Forschung zu Selbstreferenz, psychologischer Distanz und sozialen Dilemmata werden Hypothesen zu sozialem und zeitlichem Framing entwickelt. Ein experimentelles Zwischensubjektdesign, welches in eine Online-Befragung eingebettet wurde, zeigt die Bedeutung von zeitlichem Framing sowohl für die Förderung der individuellen als auch der prosozialen Verhaltensänderungsabsicht. Soziales Framing beeinflusst die prosoziale Verhaltensabsicht. Die Art des Verhaltens an sich beeinflusst ebenfalls die Wirksamkeit des Sozialmarketing. Geringe Effektstärken und die mangelnde globale Interpretierbarkeit der Effekte zeigen jedoch, dass soziales und auch zeitliches Framing keine entscheidende Rolle spielen hinsichtlich der Wirksamkeit von Sozialmarketing.

Resumen

El marketing social está ganando importancia frente a problemas sociales persistentes. Este artículo analiza el impacto del framing temporal y del framing social sobre la effectividad del marketing social. El comportamiento individual y el comportamiento prosocial están tratados utilizando differentes sujetos del marketing social. La investigación del punto de referencia, de la distancia psycológica y del dilema social forman la base de las hipótesis. Un experimento incorporado en un cuestionario en línea muestra que el framing temporal tiene un impacto sobre la intención de cambiar un comportamiento individual o prosocial. Los resultados indican que el framing social solamente influye la intención del comportamiento individual. El típo de comportamiento afecta a la effectividad del marketing social. Los pequeños tamaños de efecto y la falta de efectos globales e interpretables indican que el framing social y el framing temporal no tienen un impacto importante a la effectividad del marketing social.

摘要

当今社会正面临着很多持久性的现代问题,在这样的背景下,社会营销学的研究也发展迅速;本实验旨在探究社会和时空框架如何影响社会营销活动的效率。通过对不同背景地分析,该研究讨论了个体行为和亲社会行为。作者在自我参照和心理距离研究以及社会困境理论的基础上,推导出有关社会和时间框架效应的假设。作者通过一个大学生样本的网络调查进行了一次主体间实验,揭示了采用时空框架来增强改变个体和亲社会行为的意图的重要性。社会框架对行为意图的影响在亲社会的情况下更为明显。行为的类别决定了与之相关的社会营销的效率。然而,由于影响规模较小且缺乏全局性的影响,表明社会和时间框架在社会营销中并没有与之相当的影响。

ملخص

بحث اجتماعي تسويق وتنمو باطراد في ظل استمرار المشاكل المعاصرة, فكيف تبحث هذه الدراسة وضع واجتماعية, زمني قد يؤثر على فاعلية حملات تسويقية الاجتماعي. من سياقات مختلفة تظهر هذه الدراسة تعالج التصرفات الفردية. أساسا في المرجعية الذاتية والنفسية المسافة, وكذلك بحث اجتماعي مأزق والنظرية, في الكتاب عن فرضيات تنجم الاجتماعي, وزمنية صياغة نتائجها.

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Appendix

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See Fig. 6 and Tables 2, 3, 4, 5.

Fig. 6
figure 6

Examples of stimuli: a Unhealthy eating self-focus, short-term condition, b Environmental destruction, self- and other-focus, long term condition, and c Domestic violence, other-focus, short-term condition

Table 2 Experimental cells
Table 3 Constructs, items, and results of factor analyses
Table 4 Assessment of discriminant validity
Table 5 Regression analyses

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Thaler, J., Helmig, B. Promoting Good Behavior: Does Social and Temporal Framing Make a Difference?. Voluntas 24, 1006–1036 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-012-9293-x

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