Abstract
The goal of our project is to develop an affective approach to Attitudes and Persuasion. Indeed, we want to understand and explain the role emotions can play in the evolution of people's attitudes towards a topic, a product, a cause, an advertisement, or a company for instance. Of course, rational argumentation might be perceived as superior in terms of achieving persuasive goals. However, we believe that the attitude of a recipient may not change if his or her feelings are not involved. Researches have proved that a persuasive message is more likely to lead to an attitude change if the receiver is emotionally aroused rather than if he or she is exposed to a more rational communication. More particularly, we would like to deal with the concept of guilt in the communication process. Indeed, the effectiveness of fear appeal or the affect-laden appeal has been deeply and thoroughly examined in different studies. On the contrary, the effectiveness of guilt appeal is less known. That is why this research project will help us to learn a bit more about this "marketing tool" which consists arousing consumers' guilt in order to persuade them.
Guilt, in marketing or in any other field, is a complex notion which is always considered as a negative emotion which has an impact on persuasion, and needs to be studied more specifically. Therefore, as a start to our study, it is important to define: what are precisely guilt and its ins and outs? Guilt must be distinguished from fear, annoyance, pity, and remorse. Guilt is more philosophy and psychology "essentially a private recognition that one has violated a personal standard" (Kugler and Jones 1992), in other words "feeling guilty informs us we have failed our own ideals" (Gaylin 1979). Hence, guilt can be described as a "feeling associated with the realization that one has transgressed a moral, societal or ethical principle" (Wolman 1973).Guilt is complex because it combines different feelings such as regret and self-blame that are going to be experienced either by contemplating or actually committing a transgression. Guilt is not only felt after a fault; indeed, it can be experienced when this act has only been thought out and not done. Therefore, guilt always refers to moral principles individuals want to obey. Guilt is specific to a norm imposed by a society and which guides the sense of ethics and attitudes of people.
A definition of guilt for such a project cannot be considered as complete if the three different types of guilt established in 1970 by Rawlings are not mentioned. First of all, guilt can be "anticipatory", which is a guilt that results from an individual while contemplating a potential violation of one's own standard (Rawlings, 1970). Then, guilt can be analyzed as "reactive". It represents here a response to having violated one's standards of acceptable behavior (Rawlings, 1970). Finally, more recent researches have shed light on "existential guilt", which is experienced as a consequence of a discrepancy between one's well-being and the well-being of others.
