Effective Sustainability Messages Triggering Consumer Emotion and Action: An Application of the Social Cognitive Theory and the Dual-Process Model

Abstract

Communication utilizing proper message framing is a crucial component in the promotion of sustainability and other related activities. Additionally, engaging all stakeholders in sustainable communication and endeavors is proven to be essential to corporate success. This is especially true for textile and apparel retailers, as they strive to gain competitive advantages through the incorporation of sustainability in their communication with their stakeholders. Therefore, promotional activities consisting of different message framing types can be a profitable way to reach, inform, and persuade consumers to engage in sustainable activities and to support corporate sustainability initiatives. Based on two theoretical foundations, the social cognitive theory and the dual-process model, this study investigates how different aspects of sustainability and message framing can persuade textile and apparel consumers to engage in sustainable behavior. The findings of this study demonstrated that each message framing type significantly influences the consumers’ emotion. Further, when the textile and apparel consumers purchase sustainable products, as a result of conscious decision-making or without much thought put into the buying decision, the act of buying sustainable products per se compels the consumers to make sustainable choices in the future.

1. Introduction

The textile and apparel industry produces redundant waste, necessitating the adoption of sustainable practices [1]. Sustainable practices provide solutions using available resources without compromising the well-being of future generations [2,3]. Therefore, adopting sustainable practices in the apparel industry is necessary for the benefit of all stakeholders including business organizations, employees, and consumers, among others. However, one common reason that businesses fail in their efforts toward sustainability is their lack of awareness about what sustainable practices are available to them in the process of manufacturing their products. Failure to communicate their sustainability initiatives within the organization and beyond, with their customers only, exacerbates the problem. A majority of companies focus their sustainability initiatives solely on economic aspects (e.g., increasing profit and decreasing expenses), failing to recognize that social and environmental sustainability (e.g., workers’ welfare and environmental concern) can also enhance long-term corporate performance. Therefore, implementation of sustainability in apparel organizations utilizing the triple bottom line (TBL) [2] (people, planet, and profit) is an important area for study.

Message framing is an effective and widely utilized marketing technique designed to influence consumer responses toward a particular issue or product, depending on the construction of a specific message [4,5]. Previous literature demonstrates that consumer attitude and behavior can be altered through the effective use of message framing [6]. The literature also indicates that psychological factors (e.g., emotion and motivation) may enable people’s involvement in sustainable practices, which reduces the risk of environmental degradation [3]. However, the literature has yet to demonstrate if message framing can be effective in persuading consumers to engage in sustainable behavior, particularly in the textile and apparel industry [5]. Further, the influence, if any, of the individuals’ concern about social welfare and the environment on their attitude and behavior towards sustainability has not been investigated. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of TBL and message framing on the motivation and engagement of consumers in sustainable behaviors based on social cognitive theory and the dual-process model.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. Social Cognitive Theory

People’s thoughts and actions can be influenced by different psychological components, such as interaction, behavior, and the environment, as described by social cognitive theory, SCT [7,8]. Bandura [7] explains that in SCT, an individual’s behavior is influenced by three factors: (1) cognitive reasoning or personal interaction, (2) surrounding actions or behavior, and (3) social context or the environment [7]. Moreover, SCT indicates that direct experience can influence the perception, affection, and behavior of an individual.

According to SCT, messages and visual representations of any incident can affect people’s cognitive perception and their subsequent behavior. Therefore, it follows that messages associated with different aspects of sustainability will elicit personal or social cognitions that will influence individual perceptions and stimulate consumer motivation. Further, intentional and unintentional consumer behaviors associated with those messages will demonstrate how the two factors (i.e., environmental and social) will affect individual actions and outcomes. SCT further explains the types of message framing that will significantly affect the consumer cognition resulting in modified behavior. Consumers interact within the social commercial environment [9]. Therefore, the underlying meaning of the messages utilized in this study serve to elicit personal interaction and provide the social context to influence consumer behavior.

2.2. Dual-Process Model: Automatic and Deliberate Action

The dual-process model explains how consumer action and decision-making occur through information processing in two ways [10]. First is a deliberate and reflective form of information processing. The second is preconscious or automatic. The automaticity in consumer action plays an important role in some cases, such as repeated purchases of the same product. A few factors influence the automatic decision-making, such as previous experiences and environmental stimuli [10].

On the other hand, deliberate action occurs for a reason [11,12]. An individual’s deliberate action is influenced by several factors such as motivation, awareness, the intention to perform, and the ability to stop voluntarily. Thus, performing any act based on at least one of the above four factors could determine whether the action is automatic or deliberate [10]. Deliberate action is a state of activity where an individual believes their action results in the performance of a certain act. Therefore, the dual-process model can be useful to examine whether the consumer’s decisions are made automatically or deliberately based on brand or product information. Continuous exploration of how consumers make decisions and what information might be effective in arousing consumer deliberate decision-making may be helpful in initiating sustainable consumer consumption practices. Thus, this study examines how the consumers’ automatic and deliberate actions are determined based on external stimuli (e.g., message types) and internal factors (e.g., emotion) [12].

3. Literature Review and Hypotheses Development

3.1. Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line

The triple bottom line (TBL) is the combination of three dimensions; people, planet, and profit. TBL is at the heart of sustainability, impacting all decision-making for both profit and non-profit organizations. According to Kealy [13], all organizations should consider these dimensions of sustainability when they make any relevant decisions that impact the business performance. Thus, balancing all three dimensions becomes a fundamental task for businesses [13]. Some companies have thrived by emphasizing their responsibility towards people and the planet along with profit as essential to sustainability and the long-term success of their businesses. For instance, Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, has long been a leader in sustainable practices. Currently, their focus is on maintaining a sustainable relationship with their stakeholders by effectively communicating the benefits of their sustainability initiatives [14].

Effective TBL initiatives communication with stakeholders, including consumers, plays a crucial role in the success of a business. Companies with effective sustainability communications help persuade consumers to engage with sustainable producers and retailers. This may result in those consumers being more informed, leading to more sustainable actions. The people aspect of sustainability, particularly in the textile and apparel industry, has been historically difficult to convey messages of sustainability. Consequently, this study divided the people aspect of sustainability into two segments, i.e., person (self) and people (others). We hypothesize that there are different emotional levels based on the sustainability aspects.

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

The level of consumer emotion will increase for messages focused on a person (self) relative to people (others) and the planet.

3.2. Message Framing

Message framing is defined as structuring information by focusing on a specific aspect of an incident or an event to make the messages more noticeable while communicating [1]. The appropriate structure of messages while conveying them is important to enhance the awareness of consumers about an issue of growing concern [15]. Therefore, message framing for marketing purposes needs to be creative and effective in the promotional aims for the products [16]. Apart from that, message framing exhibits the outcomes of promotional activities for a product either in a positive or a negative light.

In general, positive message framing foregrounds the favorable outcomes of an action, whereas negative message framing underscores the unfavorable outcomes resulting from the consumers’ lack of involvement or participation with the promoted action [5,17]. However, the effectiveness of message framing may be different based on consumers, situations, and product types [18]. According to Lee et al. [19], positively framed messages are more effective for utilitarian products, such as a pair of shoes providing protection and performance. On the contrary, negatively framed messages are more effective if the products promoted by a company satisfy hedonistic needs [19]. Nevertheless, different message framing types that include spreading awareness about health and environmental-related issues are widely adopted to arouse the emotional responses of an individual in different contexts [20,21]. Therefore, the emotional responses of consumers will be different based on the message framing types (i.e., positive and negative).

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

The level of consumer positive emotion will increase with positive message framing, and negative emotion will increase for messages with negative framing.

3.3. Emotion and Sustainability Motivation

An emotion is an uncontrollable feeling resulting from exposure to a favorable or unfavorable condition that can affect human behavior. Consumers’ needs, personality, and motivation are often linked to emotion, meaning that consumers look for brands/products not only satisfying functional needs, but also the affective connection [18]. The basic dimensions of emotion are pleasure, arousal, and dominance. It is common knowledge that people differ in their emotional attachment to environmental issues [3]. Previous literature demonstrates that people with greater personal empathy are more likely to be concerned about environment-related problems [3,22]. Other findings demonstrate that people directly affected by the adverse effects of environmental issues (e.g., urban planning, biochemical, etc.) are more likely to be involved in environmentally friendly activities [3,23].

On the other hand, it is not always true that negative environmental experiences instill enough empathy for persuading the consumers to make environmentally friendly choices. The lack of knowledge and awareness about environmental issues can be another reason for people to avoid environmentally friendly behavior [3,24]. Given the state of the current literature, it is unclear which emotional appeal, negative or positive, is the more effective method for advertisements. We hypothesized that both negative and positive emotions are related to the consumers’ motivation to act sustainably. Therefore:

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Consumer emotion will have a significant and positive influence on their motivation to make sustainable choices regardless of the message framing being positive or negative.

3.4. Brand Romance: Pleasure and Arousal

Consumer feelings and beliefs about the brand are called brand romance [24]. Brand romance comprises a mutual presence of appeal and attraction between the brands and the consumers. A brand can create more loyal consumers if it establishes an emotional attachment with its consumers, which results in a robust consumer-brand relationship [25,26]. Brands often create an emotional tie with their consumers through different dimensions of brand romance, namely, brand pleasure, arousal, and dominance, and this brand romance can influence consumer affective and cognitive emotion [27].

A positive relationship between the consumer and brand is established when there is a presence of pleasure, joy, and enjoyment. Brand arousal is defined as an intense feeling toward a brand after perceiving brand pleasure [28]. Brand arousal has a direct effect on the consumers’ buying behavior [24,29]. A consumer may experience higher brand arousal from brands that offer unique products or novel features, relative to traditional brand offerings of products with generic and conventional features [24,30]. The novel features could be related to product placement, product pricing, and distribution, among others. Brand pleasure stimulates the senses and results in desire, enjoyment, love, and attraction in the consumers toward the brands. Finally, the consumers’ cognitive engagement with brands is brought about by brand dominance [24,28]. Brand dominance can be achieved from an existing brand. However, the brand introduced for the purpose of this study to the participants was a mock brand. Thus, the factor of brand dominance was excluded from the study.

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Consumer emotion will have a significant and positive influence on brand pleasure.

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

Consumer emotion will have a significant and positive influence on brand arousal.

3.5. Wishful Identification

Wishful identification refers to the consumers’ desire to imitate the actions of their favorite media characters [31]. It is a psychological state where an individual perceives oneself as a character due to their emotional attachment with that character [32]. People’s desire to act as characters in their real lives is based on media observation and perceptions that fascinate them. Wishful identification is influenced by several factors, such as gender, intelligence, success, humor, attractiveness, and other people’s admiration for the character [32,33]. Research has demonstrated that prosocial behaviors, such as helping others (help, care, and thought for the people) can be obtained through wishful identification, resulting from prosocial messages conveyed by their favorite characters [34]. Additionally, the emotional pleasure perceived by the consumers results in a strengthened attachment to that brand [35]. Achieving brand pleasure from companies engaged in sustainable production and practices will encourage the consumers’ wishful identification.

Hypothesis 6 (H6).

Consumers’ wishful identification will be significantly and positively influenced by: (a) Sustainability motivation, (b) Brand pleasure, and (c) Brand arousal.

3.6. Consumers’ Willingness to Act

Ironically, consumers demonstrating interest in a healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle may not act on their beliefs [36]. Consequently, sustainable consumption behavior by consumers is diminished in practice [37]. Therefore, identifying what affects the consumers’ intention and willingness to practice sustainable consumption behavior is essential. The existing literature has not consistently demonstrated whether consumers are willing to compromise their current lifestyle in order to practice responsible consumption. Even though ethical behavior concerning sustainability is not common, consumers have the tendency to exhibit social desirability bias while answering survey questions [38]. This leaves a substantial gap in the literature regarding how the consumers’ beliefs and attitudes can be successfully applied in practices associated with sustainability. Knowledge about sustainability alone does not change the consumers’ behavior directly; rather, it makes people flexible and accepting of change [39,40]. Therefore, brands recognized by consumers as engaging in sustainability would be more easily accepted by the consumers who are influenced by brand pleasure. Thus, brand pleasure, along with brand arousal, play a significant role in motivating consumers to act sustainably.

Hypothesis 7 (H7).

Consumer willingness to act sustainably will be positively and significantly influenced by (a) Sustainability motivation, (b) Brand pleasure, and (c) Brand arousal.

As demonstrated in the dual-process model, consumers behave according to two processes when translating their thoughts into action; automatic and deliberate. Automatic behavior is quick and effortless, while deliberate action requires logical effort, awareness, and intention [41]. Generally, consumers purchase fashion products without considering sustainability. Consumers’ primary fashion concern is to remain fashionable and conform to current fashion norms [42]. Thus, most of the purchasing behavior for fashion consumers reflects the automatic action of the dual-process model. According to Ohtomo and Hirose [43], the eco-friendly attitude is a deliberate process, where a person executes an action with prior planning. If intentional decision-making ability prevails among the consumers, then promoting sustainable activities will be easier to enable the acceptance of eco-friendly behavior [44]. Thus:

Hypothesis 8 (H8).

Deliberate action will have an increased positive and significant influence on the consumers’ willingness relative to the positive and significant influence of automatic action.

Based on the application of the SCT and the dual-process model, all the hypotheses considered are described in the theoretical framework for this study in Figure 1.

4. Materials and Methods

4.1. Research Design

A quantitative quasi-experimental research design is used for this study to investigate the effects of message framing on sustainable consumer behavior. A Qualtrics online survey was utilized to collect the data. The questionnaire was developed utilizing existing scales from the literature. The survey items were adopted and modified from these scales [45,46,47,48]. Two screening questions were asked: (1) Have you shopped for textile and apparel products within the last two years? (2) Are you 18 years or older? Participants responding in the affirmative to both screening questions received an image with information about the mock company developed for this study, DyeApparel. This study utilizes positive or negative messages as stimuli associated with the different aspects of sustainability. Each participant was presented with one advertisement randomly selected from six different options. After showing the participant the message, two questions were asked as a manipulation check to ensure all the participants understood and comprehended the message manipulation.

4.2. Data Collection and Analysis Procedure

A total of 871 responses were collected from the panel participants on the Qualtrics’ online survey platform. From the collected data, incomplete responses were removed, and 423 valid responses were utilized further for data analyses. SPSS 27 was used to analyze the data to define the demographic characteristics of the participants and to test the hypotheses. First, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using Varimax rotation was used to find the underlying structure of the survey items, followed by reliability tests to measure the internal consistency of the variables. Then, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among variables used in this study.

5. Results

5.1. Demographic Characteristics

A total of 52.5% of the respondents were female, and 47% of the respondents were male participants. Most of the participants were Caucasian (68.3%), followed by African American (14.7%). The mean age range of the participants was 40 years old. The overall demographic information is provided in

Table 1. Demographic information of participants (n = 423).

Characteristics	Frequency	%
Age (mean = 40; median = 38)
18–25	61	14.4
26–35	120	28.4
36–45	117	27.7
46–55	62	14.7
56–65	34	8
65–76	29	6.9
Gender
Male	199	47
Female	222	52.5
Income
Less than $15,000	54	12.8
$15,000–$24,999	55	13
$25,000–$34,999	61	14.4
$35,000–$44,999	48	11.3
$50,000–$74,999	77	18.2
$75,000–$99,999	46	10.9
$100,000 or more	71	16.8
Ethnic Origin
Caucasian	289	68.3
Hispanic/Latino	31	7.3
African American/African/Black	62	14.7
Asian/Pacific Islander	19	4.5
Native American	3	0.7
Education Level
High school	163	38.5
2-year associate degree	81	19.1
4-year bachelor’s degree	96	22.7
Master’s degree	47	11.1
Ph.D.	8	1.9

.

5.2. Exploratory Factor Analysis

The dimensions of the different scales utilized in this study were tested by the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The EFA helps in identifying the primary factor on which an item loads. A factor loading above 0.50 and a minimum 0.20 difference among the factors helped in determining which factors to retain [49]. The EFA revealed a total of nine variables, including positive emotion, negative emotion, sustainability motivation, brand arousal, brand pleasure, wishful identification, consumer willingness to act, automatic action, and deliberate action. The reliability and consistency of the items utilized in this study were assessed by Cronbach’s alpha (α) value. All variables had a reliability higher than 0.7, which reflected the overall consistency of each measure (see

Table 2. EFA results.

Items	Factor Loading	Reliability	Variance Extracted
Positive Emotion [46]		0.866	26.873
Interest	0.907
Joy	0.913
Negative Emotion [46]		0.895	47.120
Contempt	0.633
Hostility	0.768
Fear	0.810
Shame	0.811
Shyness	0.824
Guilt	0.866
Sustainability Motivation [47]		0.921	81.015
I do it for the pleasure I get in engaging in new and successful ways to help	0.863
I do it for the pleasure I get in increasing my participation in sustainability activities	0.921
I like the feeling I get when doing things that contribute to making the world a sustainable place	0.917
I do it for the pleasure of contributing towards a sustainable world	0.898
Brand Pleasure [48]		0.967	90.942
I love DyeApparel	0.965
Utilizing the products of DyeApparel will give me immense pleasure	0.968
I am really happy because DyeApparel exists	0.968
DyeApparel will rarely disappoint me	0.912
Brand Arousal [49]		0.979	94.110
I am attracted to DyeApparel	0.956
I desire the products of DyeApparel	0.978
I want the products of DyeApparel	0.978
I look forward to using the products of DyeApparel	0.969
Wishful Identification [50]		0.980	91.103
I like to do things the DyeApparel way	0.953
I wish I could be a consumer that DyeApparel wants me to be	0.949
I want to be similar to the way that DyeApparel is doing the business	0.967
DyeApparel’s advertisement of the product compels me to want to be the kind of consumer the company expects.	0.950
I would like to do the things that DyeApparel is encouraging	0.959
I like the products of DyeApparel because of their sustainability activities	0.949
Consumer Willingness to Act [51,52]		0.928	41.100
I will keep using the products from DyeApparel	0.951
I would pay extra money to buy products from DyeApparel.	0.948
Automatic Action [53]		0.752	58.728
I am interested to continue buying from the same company	0.890
I think it is cool to buy from the same company	0.888
I think it is irresponsible to buy from the same company my family and friends buy stuff from	0.500
I am attentive to the activities of a company I am buying from	0.720
Deliberate Action [53]		0.741	65.901
I will buy the products I like from a company, even if no-one else wants to buy the products	0.827
I will buy what most people buy	0.801
If the product is not on the shelves, I will ask the salesperson to provide me with the product I am looking for	0.808

).

5.3. Hypothesis Testing

ANOVA. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) along with a post hoc Tukey test was conducted to determine whether significant differences in emotional responses existed when different framing messages were utilized. The ANOVA result indicated there was no significant difference among different sustainability aspects; person, people, or planet (F = 2.050, p > 0.05). The test results also demonstrated no significant difference between groups (person, people, planet) for negative emotion (F = 0.015, p > 0.05). The post hoc Tukey analysis indicated for negative emotion; all positive messages demonstrated a significant mean difference from all negative messages. Further, negative messages demonstrated a non-significant mean difference; thus, H1 was not supported.

An independent sample t-test was conducted to identify any significant mean differences between the positively and negatively framed messages. The t-test revealed a significant mean difference between the positively and negatively framed messages. Consumers’ positive and negative emotional responses were significantly different with positive emotions, demonstrating a higher mean for positive messaging, and negative emotion having a higher mean for negative message framing. Thus, H2—consumer emotion will differ by message framing types—was supported (see

Table 3. Independent sample t-test.

Variables	Group	N	Mean	SD	t	Mp−n	df	Sig.
Positive emotion	Positive message	206	5.17	1.25	13.42	2.20	124	0.000
	Negative message	217	2.98	2.00
Negative emotion	Positive message	206	2.31	1.41	−12.42	−1.69	124	0.000
	Negative message	217	4.00	1.38

Note: M_p−n indicates the mean difference of M_{positive message} − M_{negative message}.

).

Regression analyses. To test H3, a linear regression analysis was utilized, where emotion was an independent variable, and sustainability motivation was a dependent variable. The overall model was statistically significant (R2 = 0.084, F = 19.139, p < 0.05). Positive emotions, such as interest and joy, affected sustainability motivation positively (β = 0.311, p < 0.05). Negative emotions, such as contempt, guilt, and fear, also affected sustainability motivation positively (β = 0.138, p < 0.05). Therefore, H3—consumer emotion will have a positive and significant influence on sustainability motivation—was supported.

H4 predicted the relationship between emotion and brand pleasure, where emotion was entered as an independent variable and brand pleasure as a dependent variable in the regression model. The overall model was significant (R2 = 0.760, F = 665.578, p < 0.05). Positive emotions, such as interest and joy, affected brand pleasure positively (β = 0.842, p < 0.05). On the other hand, negative emotions, such as contempt, guilt, and fear, affected brand pleasure negatively (β = −0.072, p < 0.05). Thus, H4—consumer emotion will have a significant and positive influence on brand pleasure—was supported.

For H5, emotion was entered as an independent variable and brand arousal as a dependent variable in the regression model. The overall model was significant (R2=0.749, F = 625.441, p < 0.05). Positive emotions, such as interest and joy, affected brand arousal positively (β = 0.820, p < 0.05). Negative emotions, such as contempt, guilt, and fear, affected brand arousal negatively (β = −0.105, p < 0.05). Therefore, H5—consumer emotion will have a significant and positive influence on brand arousal—was supported.

To test H6, sustainability motivation, brand pleasure and brand arousal were entered as independent variables, and wishful identification was entered as a dependent variable in the regression model. The overall model was significant (R2 = 0.888, F = 1111.484, p < 0.05). Brand pleasure (b) positively affected wishful identification (β = 0.408, p < 0.000). Further, brand arousal (c) also positively affected wishful identification (β = 0.545, p < 0.000). However, sustainability motivation (a) did not predict wishful identification (β = −0.002, p > 0.05). Thus, H6—sustainability motivation, brand pleasure, and brand arousal will have a significant and positive influence on consumers’ wishful identification—was partially supported.

To test H7, sustainability motivation, brand pleasure, and brand arousal were entered as independent variables, and the consumer willingness to act functioned as a dependent variable in the regression model. The overall model was significant (R2 = 0.872, F = 950.075, p < 0.05). Brand pleasure (b) positively affected the consumer willingness to act (β = 0.496, p < 0.05). Further, brand arousal (c) positively affected consumer willingness to act (β = 0.439, p > 0.05). However, sustainability motivation (a) did not predict the effect of consumer willingness to act (β = 0.031, p > 0.05). Thus, H7—sustainability motivation, brand pleasure, and brand arousal will have a significant and positive influence on the consumers’ willingness to act—was partially supported.

To test H8, automatic and deliberate actions were entered as the independent variables, and consumer willingness to act functioned as a dependent variable in the regression model. The overall model was significant (R2 = 0.513, F = 221.209, p < 0.05). Automatic action affected consumer willingness to act positively (β = 0.513, p < 0.05), and deliberate action affected consumer willingness to act positively (β = 0.259, p < 0.05). Therefore, H8a and H8b—automatic and deliberate actions will have a significant and positive influence on consumers’ wishful identification—were supported. In addition, the beta value for the effect of automatic action was higher than that of the deliberate action, which is the opposite of what was hypothesized for H8c. Thus, H8c was not supported (see

Table 4. Results of regression analysis for hypotheses (H3 to H8).

Variables	df	R2	F	β	t	Sig.
Sustainability motivation (DV)	422	0.084	19.139			0.000 ***
Positive emotion				0.311	6.170	0.000 ***
Negative emotion				0.138	2.745	0.006 **
Brand pleasure (DV)	422	0.760	665.570			0.000 ***
Positive emotion				0.842	32.673	0.000 ***
Negative emotion				−0.072	−2.799	0.005 **
Brand arousal (DV)	422	0.749	625.441			0.000 ***
Positive emotion				0.820	31.090	0.000 ***
Negative emotion				−0.105	−3.970	0.005 **
Wishful identification (DV)	422	0.888	1111.484			0.000 ***
Sustainability motivation				−0.002	−0.140	0.888
Brand pleasure				0.408	7.258	0.000 ***
Brand arousal				0.545	9.612	0.000 ***
Willingness to act (DV)	422	0.872	950.075			0.114
Sustainability motivation				0.031	−1.584	0.086
Brand pleasure				0.496	1.719	0.000 ***
Brand arousal				0.439	8.224	0.000 ***
Willingness to act (DV)	422	0.513	221.209			0.000 ***
Automatic action				0.513	10.881	0.000 ***
Deliberate action				0.259	5.486	0.000 ***

Note: DV = Dependent Variable; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.

and Figure 2).

6. Discussion

The findings of this paper presented effective types of message framing utilized to increase positive emotion. Positive emotion affects brand pleasure and brand arousal, encouraging consumers to support sustainable actions of producers by purchasing their products. Previous research demonstrated that consumer knowledge is often limited regarding environmentally related issues. Further, when consumers consider sustainability, the planet is their priority [54]. In line with those findings, consumers and organizations may have difficulty understanding the people aspect of sustainability. This may be a result of people practices being considered a government role to foster positive people practices. This may also be an underlying cause for why businesses fail to consider people in their sustainable business strategy [55].

Our research findings demonstrated that positive emotions were more effective in driving people towards sustainability, brand pleasure, and brand arousal than negative emotions. Thus, positive messages can prove to be more useful for promotion and persuading consumers to use sustainable products [56]. In addition, both positive and negative emotional responses significantly affected sustainability motivation, brand pleasure, and brand arousal. Positive emotions were demonstrated to be more effective in influencing brand pleasure and brand arousal. A positive emotional influence was observed in the study as a result of promotional messages demonstrating product production, working conditions, and environmental sustainably. This further supports previous literature, i.e., that brand romance (brand pleasure and arousal) creates a positive emotional attachment to the brand [24].

Perceived brand arousal and pleasure have significant effects on both wishful identification and the consumers’ willingness to act. This finding further supports brand arousal and pleasure, helping a consumer mimic in real-life activities experienced through wishful identification [57]. Surprisingly, the results of this study indicate that motivation towards sustainability had no significant relationship with either wishful identification or the consumers’ willingness to act. Although emotion created positive motivation towards sustainability, this motivation was not related to the sustainable actions of the consumers. This may have been because the messages utilized in this study did not include any specific information about the products or the brands. It is worth mentioning that motivation helps emulate the activities of an individual’s favorite character. Subsequently, an individual will buy a product based on the actions of the people they admire and follow (e.g., celebrities) [50].

This study investigated the use of SCT to determine whether consumers were interested in participating in sustainable consumption behavior in the context of textile and apparel shopping. The variables in this study (e.g., message framing types, emotion, motivation, brand romance, and willingness to act) resemble SCT elements environmental stimulus, cognitive, and behavioral factors. Thus, these three factors combined will create a positive attitude in a consumer, encouraging them to practice sustainability in their consumption behavior. However, based on the results of this study, one of the important cognitive factors (i.e., sustainability motivation) did not significantly affect the consumers’ actions and intentions. Furthermore, our research demonstrated that consumers were more likely to act in ways representative of their historical purchase patterns, i.e., automatic action prevails in the consumers.

Finally, the dual-process model was utilized to evaluate whether participants would modify their existing purchase automaticity. As mentioned earlier, deliberate action requires logical reasoning and cognition while performing real-life activities in. In general, consumer buying habits and routines often resemble automatic actions. It was hoped that in providing sustainability information regarding product production, worker care, and environmental care, consumers’ automatic buying tendency will alter to be more deliberate. However, our findings illustrate that the influence of automatic action on consumer willingness to act is stronger than that of deliberate action. Knowledge about sustainability may not change consumer behavior directly, as previous research demonstrates [39]; rather, it may merely make people more flexible and open to change.

7. Implications

This study was conducted to understand the influences of message framing created from three different aspects of the TBL theory to enhance the sustainable motivations and behaviors of textile and apparel consumers. One of the important implications of this study is that the current research gap in the literature regarding effective framed message creation was closed by addressing different aspects of the TBL in relation to consumer attitude and action. Previous literature detected discrepancies between the consumer perception and actual behavior [58]. Therefore, educators should seek to develop new methods to enhance people’s perception and participation in sustainability. Further, methods are needed that can serve to close the existing consumer motivation-behavior gap.

Our research findings demonstrate that consumers make purchases primarily as a result of automaticity rather than as a result of cognitive deliberations. The textiles and apparel that consumers may be persuaded to purchase can include sustainably produced products if brands can determine what drives consumers to engage in cognitively deliberate purchase behavior. Further, along with the planet aspect, consumers were concerned about people and the way products are manufactured. Thus, retailers and marketers must educate their consumers about how sustainability is interwoven in their mission and purpose. This presents an opportunity to increase their market size from which retailers can identify consumers who are the potential purchasers of sustainability practicing brands. Finally, this study examined advertisements to stimulate an emotional response in consumers. Business managers should reach out to their consumers utilizing positive emotion-based messaging, emphasizing their sustainable initiatives and how and why consumers should participate in sustainability with them.

8. Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research

Although this research provided important academic and practical findings and implications on how message framing could contribute to modifying and encouraging involvement in sustainable purchasing behavior, there are some limitations that can be addressed in future research. First of all, the messages in this study were considerably explicit. Therefore, the implicit message framing to promote the company may provide other important findings. For example, “Don’t buy this jacket” was an anti-consumption advertisement utilized by a company named “Patagonia”. They were profitable because of this apparent non-persuasive message [59]. Therefore, future research can be conducted by considering both the anti-consumption advertisement technique and effective implicit message framing based on the different aspects of TBL or for the quadruple bottom line (QBL), which also includes the purpose [60].

In addition, the message framing types conveyed the detrimental health effects of utilizing non-sustainable products. The degree of the adverse effects on health may differ by individual, use duration, product type, and production materials. Thus, future research may focus on products that require processing with harmful chemicals and the health risks for workers and the consumers. Furthermore, consumer purchasing behavior and brand romance can be influenced by some other factors such as price, product attributes, style, quality, demands, brand trust, and previous experience, among others. Thus, the delineated factors should be considered variables and/or moderators for future research. Lastly, researchers may consider different techniques to examine the consumers’ true responses, such as neurological studies based on stimuli.