This study investigates how advertising sentence types (declarative vs. imperative) and anthropomorphic rhetoric jointly influence consumer recycling intentions. Based on Construal Level Theory (CLT), this study examines the underlying construal processes and the moderating role of message framing.
Four between-subjects experiments were conducted across different recyclable product contexts to test the proposed model. Sentence type (declarative vs. imperative) and anthropomorphic rhetoric (anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic) were manipulated as independent variables, with message framing (gain vs. loss) serving as a moderator. Recycling intention was the dependent variable, while self-accountability and warm glow were examined as parallel mediators. Hypotheses were tested using ANOVA and mediation analyses.
The results showed a construal fit between sentence types and anthropomorphic rhetoric. Under non-anthropomorphic conditions, declarative sentences increased recycling intentions via self-accountability, whereas under anthropomorphic conditions, imperative sentences were more effective through anticipatory warm glow. Message framing further moderated these effects, such that gain framing strengthened declarative non-anthropomorphic messages and loss framing strengthened anthropomorphic imperative messages. Cross-cultural evidence suggests that the self-accountability pathway was consistently supported across samples, whereas the warm-glow pathway was not reliably observed in individualistic cultural contexts.
This study advances green advertising research by shifting attention from isolated message cues to their joint configurational effects in shaping persuasion. It extends CLT-based message design by highlighting construal fit as a higher-order mechanism of message effectiveness. The study also offers practical guidance by identifying key design levers for more targeted and context-sensitive sustainability communication.
