The Impact of Regulatory Focus and Self-Construal on Guilt versus Shame Arousals in Health Communications: An Empirical Study from Vietnam

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of emotional arousals of guilt versus shame on health message compliance. The study also investigates the moderation impact of two individual factors that have not been studied much in health communications, including regulatory focus and self-construal. This study employs a 2 (guilt versus shame appeals/arousals) between-subjects experiment and a survey to test the conceptual model. The context of the study is binge drinking, and the survey respondents (n = 330) are male university students in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The results confirm the positive effects of guilt and shame arousals on health message compliance. In addition, the results show moderating effects of the two individual characteristics of regulatory focus and self-construal on the relationships between guilt/shame arousals and health message compliance. The findings of this study have not only theoretical implications but also practical implications in the field of health communications. The insights could help health marketers, policymakers, and health promotion agencies to effectively develop health communications campaigns with more appealing message content (guilt versus shame) and relevant media selection (regulatory focus and self-construal).