52 The Urge to Splurge M = 3.6, SD = 1.4) on a 7-point Likert scale based on the measurement used by Sultan, Joireman, and Sprott (2012); see also Moes et al. (2021). Besides the mediator and dependent variable, we also measured some control variables, namely, how much cravings/hunger the participants had during the study (measured with one item), their familiarity with the Dutch supermarket where the study was conducted (measured with one item), the amount of cookies that the participants ate on average (measured with one item), and the trait of general shopping impulsiveness (measured with three items: In general I find myself, during shopping, impulsive/ careless/ easily tempted. Cronbach’s alpha = .85, Rook & Fisher, 1995). A randomization check shows that participants from both conditions do not have significantly different scores on these control variables (craving: Mself = 4.0, SD = 2.2 versus Mother = 3.8, SD = 2.1, t = .94, p = .664; familiarity: Mself = 1.1, SD = .2 versus Mother = 1.1, SD = .3, t = -.49, p = .326; cookie eating: Mself = 3.8, SD = 1.8 versus Mother = 3.9, SD = 1.8, t = -.65, p = .688; general impulsiveness: Mself = 3.6, SD = 1.4 versus Mother = 3.7, SD = 1.5, t = -.74, p = .853). Therefore, these variables were not included as covariates in further analyses. Finally, we measured demographics (sex and age) and included some variables for exploratory reasons, such as positive and negative emotionsiii. Results. We performed a one-way ANOVA to test the direct effect of message frame on impulse buying urges (H1). The ANOVA shows no direct effect of message frame on impulse buying urge (F (1, 364) = .15, p = .698), so Hypothesis 1 is rejected. However, we do find an effect of message frame on justification. A Chisquare test showed that people who were exposed to the other-benefit frame more often expressed thoughts or feelings related to justifying the impulse buying of the cookies (40%) than the people who were exposed to the self-benefit frame (19%, Pearson Chi2 = 18.16, p = <.000). It should be noted that these justifications are almost exclusively related to moral justification and rarely to deservingness justification. Among the people who were exposed to the self-benefit frame (N = 185), 18% had thoughts and/or feelings referring to moral justification, 1% had thoughts and/or feelings referring to deservingness justification. Among the people who were exposed to the other-benefit frame (N = 181), 40% had thoughts and/or feelings referring to moral justification, 0% had thoughts and/or feelings referring to deservingness justification. Additionally, an ANOVA shows that people who have thoughts or feelings related to (mainly moral) justifications have a stronger urge to buy on impulse (M = 4.0, SD = 1.21) than the people who do not experience such thoughts or feelings (M = 3.5, SD = 1.48, F (1, 364) = 8.72, p = .003). This suggests that there may be an indirect effect of messages on impulse buying urges via justification, as hypothesized in H3. Discussion. Experiment 1 provides us with the insight that people experience thoughts similar to the statements made in the advertisement after being exposed to an other-benefit advertising frame. It seems that people are more likely to adopt reasons to buy that are beneficial for others (versus beneficial for themselves), and that
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