The effect of stress on compliance with health-related advertising

Abstract

Given the growing importance of health-related advertising, in our research we examined how the persuasiveness of health-related advertisements is affected by a new antecedent: stress, a universal and draining experience. A series of five studies (including one survey and four experiments) revealed that people are more willing to comply with health-related advertising when they feel stressed. This is because stress increases consumers’ tendency to avoid risk, which consequently prompts their compliance with health-related advertising. Moreover, consumers’ promotion focus was found to be a boundary condition for the effect of stress on compliance with health-related advertising, with the effect being weaker among promotion-focused consumers. Our findings not only reveal a novel variable that could promote health compliance but also suggest what marketers should do to bolster the effectiveness of health-related advertising.