AAA Annual Conference 2018

Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of South Carolina
Jon Morris, University of Florida

Grounded in the motivational aspect of emotions, the current study proposes the underlying mechanism to explain how people in different levels of control (i.e., anger versus fear) are motivated to regulate their emotions. To further test this mechanism, this study utilizes various emotional appeals to examine different routes that individuals take to restore or maintain their level of control in the context of anti-terrorism communication. Angry people report greater feeling of control and more favorable ad attitude when exposed to a positive and high-dominance message as well as a negative and low-dominance message. In contrast, fearful people report similar results when exposed to four different emotional messages. In addition, the significant findings on ad attitude and behavioral intention is more prominent among angry people who have a higher need for control.