Guilt is a widely used emotional appeal in environmental sustainability and other advocacy messages. However, unintended negative effects such as psychological reactance, where individuals resist or reject the message, have been identified, and scholars have recently suggested strategies to mitigate those effects. Using an experimental design, the study examined the role of self-efficacy cues (lower vs. higher magnitude behavioral recommendations) in the message recommendation component of guilt appeals that are designed to elicit more guilt than shame. Adult-aged participants (N = 341) were exposed to messages that described the negative effects of climate change on wild animals. Results from a serial mediation test indicated that viewing guilt messages with lower (vs. higher) magnitude behavioral recommendation was associated with greater self-efficacy beliefs and less perceived threat to freedom, which predicted more anticipated guilt and, finally, greater intention to take pro-environmental actions. These findings contribute to the theoretical development and practical applications regarding how self-efficacy-enhancing content in guilt appeals can reduce defensive responses and foster a stronger commitment to sustainable practices.

Plastic bag pollution in the marine environment is an urgent issue that has negatively impacted the sustainability of marine biodiversity. Studying effective ways to design advocacy messages that can promote individuals’ intentions to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic bags in order to mitigate plastic bag pollution in the effort to help restore marine biodiversity is necessary. Utilizing emotional appeal messages, such as messages that are designed to elicit audiences’ feelings of empathy, can promote a variety of pro-environmental behaviors. To investigate an effective way to generate empathy, this online experiment study conducted with 257 college students in the U.S. examined whether messages that encourage perspective-taking can successfully elicit empathy among participants. Additionally, the study explored whether messages that encourage perspective-taking can promote viewers’ behavioral intentions to engage in the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic bags) via the mediating roles of empathy and guilt. Results indicated that perspective-taking messages can increase viewers’ empathy, which was positively associated with feelings of guilt, which in turn was positively associated with viewers’ 3Rs behavioral intentions. The study also investigated the influence of self-efficacy on guilt as well as the interaction of self-efficacy and perspective-taking on guilt. Results suggested that self-efficacy did not have an effect on guilt, and the effects of self-efficacy and perspective-taking on guilt were independent of each other. These findings demonstrate that messages encouraging perspective-taking can positively affect individuals’ 3Rs behavioral intentions to reduce plastic waste as a means to restore marine biodiversity.