Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective

Drawing from recent literature on prosocial motivation, we devise three prosocial persuasive appeals, altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity, and test if they are persuasive in encouraging prevention adherence in the late COVID pandemic. Additionally, we explore how three prosocial appeals differ in...

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Main Author: Yadong Ji
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-12-01
Series:Social Influence
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15534510.2025.2495570
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author Yadong Ji
author_facet Yadong Ji
author_sort Yadong Ji
collection DOAJ
description Drawing from recent literature on prosocial motivation, we devise three prosocial persuasive appeals, altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity, and test if they are persuasive in encouraging prevention adherence in the late COVID pandemic. Additionally, we explore how three prosocial appeals differ in persuasiveness through threat to freedom and psychological reactance. We use an experimental design (n = 895) and compare the three prosocial appeals with a conventional individual-benefit message and a no-message control. The results suggest conditional support for the persuasiveness of reciprocity message and the solidarity message but not the altruism message. The altruism message provokes the strongest psychological reactance, which explains its relatively low effectiveness.
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spelling doaj-art-c87d6bbc92b747db8bf2c01b320811b22025-08-20T02:20:12ZengTaylor & Francis GroupSocial Influence1553-45101553-45292025-12-0120110.1080/15534510.2025.2495570Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspectiveYadong Ji0Department of Communication Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USADrawing from recent literature on prosocial motivation, we devise three prosocial persuasive appeals, altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity, and test if they are persuasive in encouraging prevention adherence in the late COVID pandemic. Additionally, we explore how three prosocial appeals differ in persuasiveness through threat to freedom and psychological reactance. We use an experimental design (n = 895) and compare the three prosocial appeals with a conventional individual-benefit message and a no-message control. The results suggest conditional support for the persuasiveness of reciprocity message and the solidarity message but not the altruism message. The altruism message provokes the strongest psychological reactance, which explains its relatively low effectiveness.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15534510.2025.2495570COVID-19 preventionprosocial appealprosocial persuasionpsychological reactance
spellingShingle Yadong Ji
Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
Social Influence
COVID-19 prevention
prosocial appeal
prosocial persuasion
psychological reactance
title Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
title_full Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
title_fullStr Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
title_full_unstemmed Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
title_short Prosociality as persuasive appeals: considering altruism, solidarity, and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
title_sort prosociality as persuasive appeals considering altruism solidarity and reciprocity from a psychological reactance perspective
topic COVID-19 prevention
prosocial appeal
prosocial persuasion
psychological reactance
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15534510.2025.2495570
work_keys_str_mv AT yadongji prosocialityaspersuasiveappealsconsideringaltruismsolidarityandreciprocityfromapsychologicalreactanceperspective