Jarim Kim

This study investigates how the effects of crisis magnitude on individuals’ expectancy violations (EV) and emotions vary depending on the crisis type, specifically highlighting corporate ability (CA) crises versus corporate social responsibility (CSR) crises. We conducted a 2 (crisis magnitude: high vs. low) × 2 (crisis type: CA vs. CSR) randomised experiment with 269 participants in Hong Kong and mainland China. The results showed that in the case of CSR crises, crises with greater magnitude triggered stronger anger, disappointment, and regret than crises with lower magnitude through negative EV; however, such effects were not found in CA crises. In turn, these three emotions exerted different effects on attitudes and behavioural intentions. These findings offer insights into the underlying mechanisms of individuals’ cognitive and emotional responses to different crises and are expected to help crisis communicators develop effective strategies suitable for different types of crises.

It has been well documented that social norms play a key role in motivating behavioral change. Although research on the effects of normative messages on pro-environmental decision-making has increased in recent years, our understanding of how these messages influence behavior remains limited (Chung & Lapinski, 2024). In particular, many pro-environmental behaviors have not yet achieved widespread adoption, and normative influences are often ineffective in such contexts. Consequently, scholars have begun to focus on dynamic norms, which refer to changing patterns of norms surrounding specific behaviors (Sparkman & Walton, 2017). When only a minority engages in a particular behavior, static norms that reflect behavior at a single point in time may inadvertently discourage action by emphasizing low participation rates. In contrast, dynamic norms, which highlight increasing popularity of a given behavior, have been shown to promote engagement (Sparkman & Walton, 2017). Accordingly, dynamic norms are considered particularly effective in contexts where pro-environmental behaviors have not yet become the majority practice. However, empirical evidence remains limited, and existing findings are inconsistent.To advance understanding of norm framing effects (static vs. dynamic), the present study examines the underlying mechanisms through which norm framing influences behavior and investigates how these effects vary as a function of individual skepticism, specifically in the context of climate change. Environmental skepticism—defined as the tendency to doubt the seriousness, causes, or scientific evidence of environmental problems—has been identified as a key factor hindering effective environmental communication and behavior change.An online experiment was conducted with 367 participants in South Korea. Participants first completed measures assessing climate change skepticism and were then randomly assigned to one of two norm-framing conditions (static vs. dynamic) related to pro-environmental behaviors aimed at mitigating climate change. They subsequently responded to measures of key variables.The results indicated that the interaction between norm framing and skepticism did not significantly affect preconformity; however, it had a significant effect on reactance. Specifically, higher levels of skepticism were associated with greater reactance in response to dynamic norm messages compared to static norm messages. Moreover, this increased reactance was associated with reduced pro-environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of normative influence and climate change skepticism and offers practical implications for climate communication as well as directions for future research. ReferencesChung, M., & Lapinski, M. K. (2024). The effect of dynamic norms messages and group identity on pro-environmental behaviors. Communication Research, 51(4), 439–462.Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M. (2017). Dynamic norms promote sustainable behavior, even if it is counternormative. Psychological Science, 28(11), 1663–1674.

Construal level theory (CLT) explains that people construe realities differentially based on the psychological distance between themselves and the realities. Informed by CLT, this study investigated how congruencies between mental representations of different message and recipient components influence individuals' responses. Specifically, it examined how message target (self vs. others) effects vary depending on the use of gain-loss framing and individuals' regulatory focuses, using an experiment with 800 respondents in the social distancing context. Results indicated that promotion-focused individuals are more likely to find others-targeted messages more effective, interesting, and easy to process, which further affected behavior-related responses. By contrast, the results showed that prevention-focused individuals are more likely to perceive self-targeted messages as easier to process, which also influences their behavior-related responses. This study contributes to the development of target framing theory and expands the current message design literature by revealing the potential mechanisms through which multiple message components interact.

Purpose: This study aims to propose a theoretical framework for public segmentation to identify various publics and conceptualize an activist public concerned with environmental issues, focusing specifically on the issue of climate change. Design/methodology/approach: By incorporating the summation method of public segmentation from strategic communication research and levels of anger, this study identifies four types of environmental publics, using a survey with 585 people in the United States of America. Findings: This study identifies four distinct environmental publics in relation to the climate change issue: (1) activist public (high activeness/high anger), (2) active-calm public (high activeness/low anger), (3) inactive-angry public (low activeness/high anger) and (4) unconcerned public (low activeness/low anger). This study explores the relationships between four environmental publics and their information seeking on climate change and engagement in environmental activism, both online and offline. Originality/value: The study provides a segmentation framework for conceptualizing environmental publics and examines the relationships between environmental publics and their information seeking and activism behaviors. It contributes to existing segmentation literature by providing a new framework that can be used in segmenting publics. Also, the findings help practitioners strategically manage communication with different publics.

Over the past 30 years, gain/loss framing has received substantial scholarly attention from advertising researchers. Nevertheless, its effects are not yet fully understood, and further research is required to clarify mixed findings reported in previous studies. In response to this gap in the literature, this study examined the mechanisms through which risk perceptions affect gain/loss framing effects, using two experiments involving different levels of risks. Experiment 1, which involves low risk, showed that gain framing was more effective for consumers with stronger risk perceptions. However, this advantage disappeared when consumers' risk perceptions were weak. In Experiment 2, which involves high risk, loss framing was more effective for consumers with weaker risk perceptions; however, these effects disappeared when consumers' risk perceptions were very strong. The study also revealed that anticipated regret mediates the interaction effects of framing and risk perceptions on attitudes and intentions. The findings of this study suggest that risk perceptions may help explain the inconsistent results reported in previous research.

Food-related issues have recently become one of the most salient and controversial issues and have received increasing media and scholarly attention. This study examines the distinct effects of trust and distrust on the public’s information behaviors, specifically in the context of two food-related issues including GM food and food additives. This study employs a cross-sectional survey with 1,089 Chinese citizens. This study demonstrates that trust and motivation positively predicted information transmission behaviors (i.e., information sharing and forwarding) and information acquisition behaviors (i.e., information attending and seeking). Distrust, on the other hand, predicted only information transmission behaviors. Motivation’s effects on information acquisition behaviors were moderated by trust. This study contributes to the field of health information by expanding STOPS’ applicability to food-related risk contexts, conducting research with culturally distinct populations different from those featured in prior research, and distinguishing the roles of trust and distrust in influencing information behaviors.

This study examined how uncertainty affects information seeking and avoidance behaviors via information insufficiency in the COVID-19 vaccination context. It also investigated how trust in science, government, and society moderate the effects of information insufficiency. An online experiment with 131 Korean adults showed that uncertainty indirectly affects information seeking intentions via information insufficiency, which is moderated by science trust and governmental trust. It also showed that uncertainty indirectly affects information avoidance intentions via information insufficiency, which is moderated by social trust.