Power and message framing: An examination of consumer responses toward goal-framed messages

Consumers’ purchasing choices are highly sensitive to the way product message is presented. However, it is unclear how consumers’ sense of power interacts with the framed message to influence their decision to purchase. Based on the approach-inhibition theory of power, the present research investigates this question by manipulating power with different experimental paradigms across three studies (a role-imagination task in Study 1, a semantic priming task in Study 2, and a self-designed advertising post in Study 3). The results consistently revealed that the high-power consumers reported greater intention to purchase a product in response to a gain-framed message than a loss-framed message; conversely, the low-power consumers reported greater purchase intention in response to a loss-framed message than a gain-framed message. The present findings contribute to the literature on the individual differences in the message framing effect, and provide helpful insights for developing advertising strategies based on consumers’ power state.