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Technical University of Munich

Marketing ZFP article develops a conceptual framework of implicit relationships and effects based upon Construal Level Theory

Lehrstuhl-News |

The article “Construal-Level Perspective on Consumers’ Donation Preferences in Relation to the Environment and Health” by Sabrina Lucke and Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer assess the interrelationship between psychological distance (and closeness) and environmental (and health) concepts as well as the influence of primed distance (vs. closeness) on consumers’ intentions to donate for environmental and health charities.
Environmental issues such as climate change and glacier retreat are influenced by psychological distance

Background and Objective of the study

From both a societal and a managerial perspective, the support of charities in the areas of environment and health is important. The study argues that the mental representations of distance (vs. closeness) – a concept called psychological distance – affects consumers’ preferences to donate to social charities. Such representations can relate to places (i.e., supporting a local vs. distant cause) and people (i.e., supporting people like oneself vs. people unlike oneself), for example.

Design and results

Umweltbezogene Themen wie beispielsweise Klimawandel und Rückgang der Gletscher werden von psychologischer Distanz beeinflusst

The authors conducted two studies, considering four dimensions of psychological distance. An Implicit Association Test showed that it is easier and more natural for consumers to pair distant (vs. close) target words with environment- related stimuli and to pair close (vs. distant) target words with health-related stimuli. An experimental study reveals that environmental (health) charities are supported more when consumers are primed with psychological distance (closeness). The studies extend the literature on Construal Level Theory of Psychological Distance by showing that psychological distance (vs. closeness) relates to the domains of environment and health, with contrasting effects.

Implications

These findings have implications for designing social marketing campaigns. As the studies were conducted in a social marketing context (particularly study 2), our results are mainly relevant to practitioners in the area of social marketing and public policy marketing. Social marketers, public policy makers, and charitable organizations can be informed to better understand the multifinality of many behaviors, and how the preferences for certain contexts is influenced by the concept of psychological distance.

The study

 

Contact

Chair of Sport and Health Management

Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Secretary: Mirjam Eggers

Uptown Munich Campus D
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich Germany

Phone: +49.89.289.24559
Fax: +49.89.289.24642

info.mgt@sg.tum.de

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