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Multiple studies employ consumers’ intentions rather than actual purchases when assessing organic food consumption. These studies typically suggest a green bias in organic market share. Employing reactance and construal level theory, this research investigates the impact of one’s social distance to the character depicted in ads (animal vs. human) and the temporal distance (present vs. future) toward organic animal husbandry on consumers’ purchase responses directly; indirectly, as related to the portrayed character; and generally to organic foods. Three 2 (temporal distance: low, high) × 2 (social distance: low, high) between-subjects experiments demonstrate that low social distance depicting humans rather than animals induces psychological reactance, which impedes purchase intentions of organic groceries, whereas ads featuring high social and temporal distance (depicting animals in an ideal future husbandry state) increase consumers’ purchase intentions and actual purchase behavior, even for products with no direct connection to the depicted character in the ads.

Poaching rhinos to sell their horns is one of the most pressing threats to wildlife and constitutes an illicit yet extremely profitable business. Employing construal level and reactance theory, two studies examine which marketing campaign is most effective in countries where the crime is actually taking place by distinguishing supply (=poachers in Kenya) and demand (=consumers of Chinese traditional medicine in China). Both studies follow a 2 × 2 between‐subject design with an additional control group whereby temporal distance and social distance are manipulated to outline weaknesses of current antipoaching campaigns and identify alternatives that are more effective. Results suggest that economic and identity‐related factors can explain consumers (China) and poachers (Kenya) intentions to purchase traditional Chinese medicine with rhino horn or sell rhino horn. In both countries, marketing campaigns featuring temporal distance were superior to close counterparts; yet, the mediating variables differ for each country. Close temporal distance elicits reactance. Interestingly, poachers do not seem to discriminate between close and far social distance. The findings have lifesaving implications for wildlife, profound practical implications for non‐governmental organizations, and governmental agencies' additional theoretical contributions.

When users begin to feel uncomfortable about the influence of social network services (SNSs) on their lives, they react with various discontinuance behaviors. This comparative study intends to provide a comprehensive explanation of how the fatigue or regret phenomenon is related to users’ diverse reactions against SNSs. This study attempts to answer two questions: (1) How do specific types of relationships influence social overload from SNS interactions on Facebook? and (2) How does social overload threaten the free usage of services and lead to users’ dissatisfaction with SNSs, and how do these constructs influence users’ intent to discontinue usage of SNSs? To this end, we test a reactance model with Facebook users (n = 433) using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). This study found significant results of the reactance mechanism using samples from two countries, Korea and Japan, which support the generalizability of the reactance mechanism in SNS fatigue. The path of the psychological reactance mechanism in SNSs could differ by country. We also found that reactions toward persona non grata in SNSs differed by country. Our findings suggest that the specific cultural context should be considered when analyzing social overload in SNSs. In previous studies, insufficient attention has been paid to the social features or contexts of SNS. This study proposes a new categorization of relationships in the context of SNSs through the persona non grata concept. As SNSs are social platforms, emotions perceived from the social features of SNSs are an important construct that motivates people to continue using SNSs. Therefore, promoting free activities for users can be an important strategy for maintaining their motivation to use the service. It should be noted that the sample used in this study was slightly unbalanced by the inclusion of a greater proportion of young participants.

This paper examines the interrelated effects of perceived ad intrusiveness of rich media ads in online advertisements with respect to attitudes towards brands, online advertisement and the publisher's website on young Indian travellers. Despite the widespread use of the term in marketing literature, ad intrusiveness has received almost no attention in the destination marketing literature especially in the context of rich media ads. Data have been collected from 304 young Indian travellers using a structured questionnaire in an experimental design setting. Results indicate that perceived ad intrusiveness has direct and negative relationship on attitude towards brand, online advertisement and the publisher's website. Results suggest strategies that advertisers may adopt to minimize the negative influence of intrusiveness in case of direct response when compared to branding objectives. Various theoretical and managerial implications are discussed with directions for future research.

In this article we suggest that independent vs. interdependent aspects of the self yield different manifestations of psychological reactance and that this is especially relevant in a cross-cultural context. In Studies 1, 2, and 4 we showed that people from collectivistic cultural backgrounds (individuals holding more interdependent attitudes and values) were less sensitive to a threat to their individual freedom than people from individualistic cultural backgrounds (individuals holding more independent attitudes and values), but more sensitive if their collective freedom was threatened. In Study 3 we activated independent vs. interdependent attitudes and values utilizing a cognitive priming method and yielded similar results as the other studies hinting at the important causal role of self-related aspects in understanding reactance in a cross-cultural context.