title: Gain or non-loss: The message matching effect of regulatory focus on moral judgements of other-orientation lies.
abstract: Previous studies found that individuals with promotion focus are more likely to be persuaded by messages framed in terms of gain-related words; individuals with prevention focus are more likely to be persuaded by messages framed in terms of loss-related words. This is known as the message matching effect of regulatory focus. The present study extended this effect into the field of moral judgement of other-orientation lies. Two experiments were conducted, revealing that (a) individuals with promotion focus judged gain-framed other-orientation lies to be more moral, while individuals with prevention focus judged non-loss-framed other-orientation lies to be more moral; and (b) the subjective processing fluency had a partial mediating role in the message matching effect. Theoretical implications and future research directions were discussed.
authors.affiliation: College of Psychology and Sociology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Research Centre of Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.|Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shenghua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D010565:Persuasive Communication
keywords: Message-matching effect; Moral judgement; Other-orientation lies; Regulatory focus