Heliyon 6 (2020) e04912

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Heliyon
journal homepage: www.cell.com/heliyon

Research article

Attentional and emotional brain response to message framing in context of

green marketing
Muhammad Zubair a, Xiaoyi Wang b, *, Sidra Iqbal c, Muhammad Awais d, Ruining Wang e
a
Department of Marketing, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Room No 1206, Dormitory-D, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
b
Department of Marketing, School of Management, Zhejiang University, 3rd Floor, School of Management Building, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,
China
c
Department of Psychology, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar, Pakistan
d
Department of Data Science and Engineering Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Room No 1023, Dormitory-D, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou, China
e
Department of Marketing, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Room No 508, Dormitory-A, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Background: Message framing plays an important role in advertising strategies and has been studied from various
Attention perspectives in different behavioral studies.
Emotion New method: This study employs the event-related potential technique to examine attentional and emotional brain
Event-related brain potentials
processing as influenced by message framing in the context of green marketing.
Green marketing
Message framing
Results: The behavioral results demonstrated that purchase preference was higher under positive framing
ERPs compared to negative and neutral framing.
Consumer attitude As per the event-related potential results, negative framing elicited a larger P1 component, which reveals that in
Research and development the first stage of processing information, threatening information attracted more attention. In the second and third
Consumer psychology stage, N170 and P3, respectively, were higher for positive framing, demonstrating that there was more attention
Decision analysis toward the processing of non-threatening emotional information.
Cognition Comparison with existing method: Message Framing has been previously examined with behavioral methods. We
for the first time examined it with a neuroscientific method like Event Related Brain Potential technique in a green
marketing context.
Conclusion: Our results compared to behavioral studies provide stronger evidence from underlying neural
perspective for how message framing can be affected by attentional and emotional brain responses in the context
of green marketing.

1. Introduction Among the various advertising strategies in existence, message

framing is an approach that is often used to influence consumers' be-
In modern-day business, many companies pay close attention to haviors and attitudes (Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy, 1990) and, ac-
environmental concerns, acknowledge the significance of environmen- cording to prospect theory, to objectively present information in terms of
tally focused marketing strategies, and emphasize “green” advertising either the advantages gained or disadvantages encountered (Chang and
(i.e., advertising that targets environmentally conscious consumers) for Lee, 2009; Gerend and Cullen, 2008; Krishnamurthy et al., 2001; Levin
their products and services (Green Marketing: A Global Strategic Business et al., 1998; Tversky and Kahneman, 1981). Message framing is common
Report - Asia Green Buildings, 2019). Green advertising has received in advertising, with positive and negative message framing now repre-
promising appraisals (Chan et al., 2006), and has been shown to strongly senting leading advertising strategies (Rothman et al., 2006; Tsai, 2007).
affect consumers' emotional processing and to stimulate “green purchase For green advertising, companies, when seeking to create a positively
intentions” (Carrus et al., 2008; Chang and Lee, 2009; Maheswaran and framed message, emphasize the environmental benefits associated with
Meyers-Levy, 1990). purchasing the products in question; meanwhile, when creating a nega-
tively framed message, companies highlight potential destructive

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (X. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04912
Received 24 July 2020; Received in revised form 21 August 2020; Accepted 8 September 2020
2405-8440/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M. Zubair et al. Heliyon e04912

outcomes that may result from the purchase of non-green products in higher ERP components such as the P3 and late positive potential
(Chandy et al., 2001; Homer and Yoon, 1992; Levin et al., 1998). Many (LPP) (Cuthbert et al., 2000). In this study, we used positive-, negative-,
previous studies regarding green-product-related communication have and neutral-framed messages as experimental stimuli. According to Jin
reported that negative message framing has greater effectiveness than et al. (2017) consumers' cognitive processes differ depending on the type
does positive message framing (Olsen et al., 2014), and other researchers of advertising messages they view.
have reported that, for scenarios when consumers consider the negative Several research reports have stated that the P1 and N170 are influ-
information to be more trustworthy and significant, negative framing enced by attention processing (Batty and Taylor, 2003; Miyoshi et al.,
may be more influential than positive framing (Banks et al., 1995; Davis, 2004). Meanwhile, other studies have reported that the P300 is related to
1995). Nevertheless, some researchers have suggested that positive the cognitive process of stimulus evaluation and selection (Campanella
framing has a greater impact than negative framing in terms of moti- et al., 2002; Miltner et al., 2005), and that LPP is associated with eval-
vating buying decisions for transformational products like sneakers uative categorization (Chen et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2016). Therefore,
(Chang, 2008). based on visual observation and various decision neuroscience studies
Positive and negative framing biases are associated with attention regarding attention and emotional processing (Picton et al., 2000), in the
mechanisms (Kreiner and Gamliel, 2018). Yechiam and Hochman (2013, present study we analyze data for three ERP components, the P1
2014) reported the results of risky choice framing biasness towards loss (100–180 ms), N170 (130–200 ms), and P3 (300–450 ms) to determine
attention, and other studies have also found that gain/loss message the associated attentional and emotional mechanisms.
framing modifies individuals' attention (Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran, The P1 is the first positive-going component; it normally starts at
2004). Historically, framing effects have been clearly observed in rela- 70–90 ms after stimulus presentation, and reaches peak level at
tion to cognitive factors such as emotional response (Scheufele, n.d.). For approximately 80–130 ms, with a higher magnitude at the lateral oc-
instance, Nabi et al., (2019) found that gain/loss message framing can cipital scalp areas (MANGUN, 1995). According to (Itier and Taylor,
elicit positive and negative emotions. Emotions can facilitate association 2004), the P1 component reflects greater sensitivity and higher ampli-
between the advertising message frames and attitudinal or behavioral tude to faces than to other kinds of stimuli. In addition, the P1 component
effects (Bilandzic et al., 2017). In the context of climate change, gain can be stimulated by attention to the stimulus (MANGUN, 1995).
frames have been found to provide a relatively strong emotional The N170 component is related to visually evoked ERP components,
response; especially hope (Bresnahan et al., 2013; Yu and Shen, 2013). and it is stimulated at approximately 170 ms after stimulus onset (Eimer,
Meanwhile, through studying the significance of fruit and vegetable 2000). The N170 is ranked as a face-sensitive and right-lateralized ERP
consumption Gerend and Maner (2011) found that gain- and loss-framed component because it reflects a larger amplitude for faces than non-face
messages are effective for fostering both angered and fearful states. objects (B€ otzel et al., 1995). The obvious nature of the N170 as a
In recent years, research of framing effects through examination of face-sensitive component is due to unrestrained differences in low-level
emotions has received enhanced theoretical (Nabi, 2003; Updegraff and visual stimulus features (Thierry et al., 2007). Some researchers have
Rothman, 2013) and empirical attention (Lerner and Keltner, 2001; claimed that the N170 is not a face-sensitive component, but is specific to
Marti et al., 2018). Examinations of framing effects with respect to expert processing and can be stimulated by non-face stimuli (Gauthier
attention and emotions generally focus on cognitive bias, but certain and Curby, 2005; Rossion et al., 2002; Thierry et al., 2007). However,
previous studies have examined such framing effects from a range of there are some contradicting findings regarding the N170 response to
behavioral perspectives. Some study findings support positive and emotional expressions: some studies have reported that the N170 has no
negative framing effects in relation to attention, while others support response to emotional expressions (Herrmann et al., 2002; Münte et al.,
emotional aspects. On the other hand, various research studies have 1998; Tanaka and Curran, 2001), while other studies have found that the
applied cognitive neuroscience methods to examine framing effects (Lin N170 modulates emotional expression (Batty and Taylor, 2003; Eimer
and Yang, 2014; Murch and Krawczyk, 2013; Yang, 2015). For instance, et al., 2003; Miyoshi et al., 2004).
by using an eye-tracking method Lin and Yang (2014) found that nega- The P3 component is described as a positive-going wave with a la-
tive frames induce a relatively larger number of active eye movements tency range of 250–450 ms at the frontal and centroparietal scalp areas; it
(fixation points). Meanwhile, another study that used an eye-tracking can be modulated in task-relevant activities (Cuthbert et al., 2000). The
method found no moderating effect for purchase intention (Yang, P3 component can also be stimulated by emotional stimuli with higher
2015). Use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has amplitudes (Caharel et al., 2005; Cuthbert et al., 2000). The emotional
revealed an association between positive frames and reflexive brain re- effect on the P3 component may indicate attention towards motivation-
gions, and between negative frames and reflective brain regions (Murch ally relevant stimuli (Palomba et al., 1997).
and Krawczyk, 2013). Further, by applying the event-related potential A variety of research studies have examined the roles of attention and
(ERP) method, studies have found that positive and negative messages emotion in framing effects from different perspectives (Lin and Yang,
are processed differently and provide dissimilar purchase intentions (Jin 2014; Murch and Krawczyk, 2013), but there is, as yet, no clear synthesis
et al., 2017). of the current evidence regarding this issue. Choosing the neuroscientific
In the present study, ERP technique is used to investigate the effect of method will help us to identify underlying neural mechanism, particu-
message framing on cognitive processing and decision-making in the larly how message framing influence information processing in different
context of green marketing. Choosing green marketing as a context for brain regions (Jin et al., 2017). Framing effects have been studied via
this study is due to, message framing effect in the context of green neuroscientific methods by different researchers (Lin and Yang, 2014;
marketing is limited to the developed world, there are less number of Murch and Krawczyk, 2013; Jin et al., 2017). Application of an ERP
studies in emerging economies (Camero Montgomery, 2009; Frame and approach can, thus, help to provide neural-potential evidence that can
Newton, 2007). In comparison with other neuroscientific methods, ERP contribute to the construction of persuasive message designs. In fact, by
technique provides high temporal resolution, and is an excellent measure using a neuroscientific method such as ERP, this paper is the first to
for tracking modulations of neural activity (Ma et al., 2012). It would be examine the respective responses to message framing in the context of
valuable, in a sense, to differentiate early perceptual reactivity from more green marketing. Explicitly, our main focus is to examine the neural
difficult and elaborate emotional processes (Gardener et al., 2013). ERP mechanism of message framing. Our research questions are: 1) When the
components that occur up to 300 ms after the stimulus are associated potential benefits and losses of a product are portrayed through message
with a stage of attention, and possibly reflect early sensual encoding of framing, do they influence attention and emotion? and 2) Does the
stimuli that are emotionally significant (Schupp et al., 2003, 2007). In fabrication of such positive and negative message-framing shape pur-
fact, this type of effect may indicate relatively refined processing of chase intentions regarding environmentally safe products? Based on the
emotional stimuli, along with a rich emotional effect, and can be viewed abovementioned literature, we have developed the hypothesis that the

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ERP components discussed above explain the effect of different 2.3. Procedure
message-framing types on participants' attention to and processing of
emotional stimuli regarding eco-friendly products. All of the participants received written instructions for performing the
experiment. The experiment was conducted in a dimly lit, electrically
2. Method shielded room. The distance between each subject and the computer
screen was set at 100 cm. Participants used a keyboard to record their
2.1. Participants choices. The experiment was designed in three, unrepeated blocks. We
performed a total of 140 trials in the formal experiment, and three
In this study, we recruited 20 Pakistani male postgraduate students. practice trials were conducted before the experiment to allow the par-
The members of this sample ranged in age from 25 to 35 years (Mage ¼ ticipants to familiarize themselves with the experimental procedure.
29.45 years, standard deviation [SD] ¼ 3.02 years). The participants did Each experiment was conducted over approximately 15 min. The
not have any neurological or psychiatric diseases, and had normal or experiment was run using the E-prime 2.0 software package (Psychology
corrected-to-normal vision. Before conducting the experiment, written Software tools, Pittsburgh, PA, USA). As shown in Figure 1, in each trial
informed consent was obtained from all participants. As a result of the participants viewed, in sequence, a fixation points for 1000 ms, a
abnormal electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, data for one partici- product picture for 1500 ms, a message for 2000 ms and, finally, a
pant were discarded. Thus, we used data for 19 participants, aged 25–35 question regarding their selection, which appeared for 1500 ms. Based on
years (M age ¼ 29.68 years, SD ¼ 2.91 years), for this study. The protocol the information provided in the message, the participants were asked:
for this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Neuromanage- “Are you willing to buy the product?” The participants responded “yes”
ment Laboratory in the School of Management, Zhejiang University or “no”; key “1” was used for “yes,” and key “3” was used for “no.”
China.
2.4. Design
2.2. Stimuli
This study used a 3 (message frame: positive versus negative versus
We included 20 pictures of green products and three message types, neutral)  6 (electrode sites) design, and a within-subjects factorial
positive, negative and neutral, in the experiment. All the pictures were analysis of variance (ANOVA) to obtain statistical results for the ERP
taken from Google Internet and they were neutral. Only the message (Flaisch et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2013). Mauchly's Test of Sphericity was
content was shaped in three forms like positive, negative and neutral. All used for multivariate normal distribution and Greenhouse-Geisser
pictures and messages were appeared randomly on computer screen. The correction was applied when appropriate (Gardener et al., 2013). We
three types of messages developed were consistent with the three-stage considered p-values of less than 5% to indicate significance (Keeser et al.,
model of facial-expression processing (Luo et al., 2010), and the 2011). We implemented Bonferroni correction to adjust for multiple
three-stage neural processing of emotional words (Zhang et al., 2013). comparisons.
Different research studies have applied same framing manipulation in
designing their messages (Cheng et al., 2014; Hartmann et al., 2008; 2.5. EEG recordings
Janiszewski et al., 2003; Wu and Cheng, 2011). Each picture and message
were presented on an independent slide. The pictures used were of We recorded EEG data (band-pass filter: .05–70 Hz, sampling rate:
daily-life green products (i.e disposable cups, shopping bags, batteries), 500 Hz) using a NeuroScan SynAmps2 Amplifier (Scan 4.3.1, Neurosoft
all of which were taken from the Internet. The positive message devel- Labs, Inc., Virginia, USA). Data recording was performed on 64 scalp sites
oped was “buying this protects the environment”; the negative message using Ag/AgCl electrodes, following the standard international 10–20
was “ignoring this destroys the environment”; and the neutral message system. We recorded the electro-oculograms using electrodes located
was “this is an environmentally safe product.” All of the pictures and near the outer canthus of each eye (horizontal) and above and below the
messages were developed by the authors and were evaluated and left eye (vertical), respectively. During the experiment, electrode
approved by five members of the Neuromanagement Lab. To ensure a impedance remained below 5 kΩ. The left mastoid was used as a refer-
smooth flow and consistency in terms of the experiment background, a ence electrode. Offline EEG data were referenced to the average of the
uniform size of 840  640 pixels was used for the product pictures, and a left and right mastoids. Digital filtering of electrooculography artifacts
size of 1,300  420 pixels was used for the messages. We performed these was conducted through a zero-phase shift (low pass at 30 Hz, 24 dB/
sizing-related adjustments using Photoshop software. octave). The EEG level for epochs was set at between 200 ms and 800
ms. Baseline correction was performed based on the 200-ms pre-stimulus
interval. Artifacts beyond  80 μV were rejected.

Figure 1. A single trial of the experiment procedure. Participants saw a green product picture first, then a message, and then recorded their choice in the end.

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The mean amplitudes of the ERP components P1 (100–180 ms), N170 4. Discussion
(130–200 ms) and P3 (300–450 ms) were measured at the PO5/POZ/
PO6/O1/OZ/O2, P5/P3/P1/P2/P4/P6, and F3/FZ/F4/FC3/FCZ/FC4 In Study 1, we examined how attentional and emotional stimuli (see
electrode sites, respectively. Figure 3) can evoke ERP components. Consistent with our hypotheses,
the results showed that positive message framing has a significantly
3. Results greater impact on the P3 and N170 components, while negative message
framing has a stronger influence on the P1 component.
3.1. Behavioral results

To compare the mean values of the three framing variables one-way 4.1. General discussion
ANOVA was used. According to the results of this test we found a sig-
nificant effect for framing (F (2, 36) ¼ 4.834, p < .05). The participants In the current study, we applied three types of message frames, pos-
demonstrated higher purchase intentions for positive-framing. Figure 2 itive, negative, and neutral, in the context of green marketing to inves-
shows the participants' willingness to buy. The mean scores of willingness tigate attentional and emotional brain processing of marketing stimuli.
to buy for positive framing was (MPositive ¼ 76.98, SE ¼ 5.711), negative For each message-frame type, the participants' willingness to buy was
framing was (MNegative ¼ 54.02, SE ¼ 6.881) and neutral framing was tested. The behavioral results indicated that the participants had higher
(MNeutral ¼ 68.83, SE ¼ 6.478). willingness to buy when positively framed messages were used than
when negatively and neutrally framed messages were used. We observed
3.2. ERP results important contributions to ERP components (the P1, N170 and P3). The
P1 component was highly elicited by negatively framed messages, while
P1. For the P1, statistical analysis of the repeated-measures ANOVA the N170 and P3 components were highly elicited by positively framed
showed a significant main effect for framing effect (F (2, 36) ¼ 4.903, p < messages. Our findings, from a neural perspective, indicate the effect
.05) and electrodes (F (5, 90) ¼ 7.803, p < .05). However, the interaction marketing-related stimuli have at different brain levels.
effect of the framing and electrodes was insignificant (F (10, 90) ¼ .980, The subjects showed very early significant emotional effects for the
p > .05). Multiple comparisons produced amplitude estimates for posi- P1 component at the first stage. The P1 component is commonly known
tive framing (MPositive ¼ .683, standard error [SE] ¼ .457), negative to reflect early attention allocation (Zhang et al., 2013). The results of
framing (MNegative ¼ .541, SE ¼ .409), and neutral framing (MNeutral ¼ this study indicate that the amplitude for the negatively framed messages
.513, SE ¼ .415), respectively (Figure 3). was higher than that for the positively and neutrally framed messages at
N170. For the N170, the main effects for framing (F (2, 36) ¼ 4.185, p parieto-occipital areas. This suggests that negative framing attracts more
< .05) and electrodes (F (5, 90) ¼ 4.764, p < .05) were significant. attention resources than do positive and neutral framing, respectively.
However, the interaction effect of framing and electrodes (F (10,180) ¼ Previous studies have reported that negative wording, which can easily
1.637, p > .05) was insignificant. Multiple comparisons produced attract attention or negativity bias, produces noticeable response at the
amplitude estimates for positive framing (MPositive ¼ 2.108, SE ¼ .393), P1 (Cacioppo et al., 1999; Crawford and Cacioppo, 2002). Our results
negative framing (MNegative ¼ .636, SE ¼ .345), and neutral framing support this finding, as we observed quick responses to negative stimuli,
(MNeutral ¼ .950, SE ¼ .427), respectively (Figure 3). meaning such stimuli easily attract attention. In previous studies, nega-
P3. For the P3, the main effects for framing (F (2, 36) ¼ 4.136, p < tively valanced stimuli have been found to induce a higher peak when
.05), electrodes (F (5, 90) ¼ 19.314, p < .05) and interaction of framing compared to positive and neutral stimuli, which can result in negativity
and electrodes (F (10,180) ¼ 4.351, p < .05) were all significant. Mul- bias (Smith et al., 2003); similar results were found in this study. The
tiple comparisons showed a higher mean amplitude for positive framing improvement in the P1 component towards negative message framing
(MPositive ¼ 1.998, SE ¼ .553) than negative (MNegative ¼ .890, SE ¼ .634) may be credited to emotional processing of negative stimuli through the
and neutral framing (MNeutral ¼ .242, SE ¼ .563), respectively (Figure 3). subcortical and cortical areas (Morris et al., 1999; Pessoa and Adolphs,
2010). In the current study, the P1 component was clearly evoked in the
cortical region. Elaborating negative framing in the very early stage can
help to induce participants to pay more attention to this possibly
threatening stimulus. For instance, in green marketing, negative framing
can cause consumers, from the outset, to pay more attention to the
emotionally threatening information in the advertisement.
Analysis of the N170 component indicated that subjects showed a
higher amplitude for positive framing than for negative and neutral
framing. Previous studies have found larger N170 amplitude for faces
than non-face objects (Rossion et al., 2000), while some other studies
have found a large N170 amplitude for the visual presentation of words
(Frühholz et al., 2011; Rossion et al., 2003; Simon et al., 2007). Luo et al.
(2010), found a larger amplitude for facial expressions in the right
hemisphere, and it is interesting that our study also found a larger N170
amplitude in the right hemisphere for message framing. Additionally, the
results of a study conducted by (Caharel et al., 2005) revealed that
happiness-related and non-threatening stimuli elicit the N170 compo-
nent. The observed improvement in N170 towards positive message
framing may be credited to emotional processing of positive stimuli. In
this study, we found that the N170 component differentiates emotional
stimuli when compared to neutral stimuli. The N170 component was
affected by the emotional content of sentences, which are common used
to create message framing in marketing. Specifically, in the context of
Figure 2. Behavioral results of the purchase intentions of participants in per- green marketing, participants processed the information and showed a
centage form for positive, negative, and neutral message framing. preference for potential gain by choosing the positively framed messages.

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Figure 3. Grand average ERPs of participants for the positive message (black lines), negative message (blue lines), and neutral message (red lines) recorded at the
indicated electrode sites.

In the third stage, differentiation of the positive and negative from emotionally designed stimuli than neutral stimuli. Thus, it can be
emotional stimuli from the neutral stimuli (Luo et al., 2010) was also stated that, emotionally designed advertisements in the context of green
found. According to Fischler and Bradley (2006), a frontal-central, pos- marketing are more effective than are advertisements that feature neutral
itive-going shift is boosted at 300–600 ms post-stimulus for pleasant and information for Pakistani markets.
unpleasant stimuli when compared with neutral stimuli. Furthermore, There are some practical implications of this research. First, as both
we observed the largest P3 amplitude at frontal electrodes for positively the positive and negative messages affected the participants, considering
framed messages (Potter et al., 2000), which is similar to previous the nature of consumers, marketers should aim to construct their
findings (Schapkin et al., 2000; Kissler et al., 2009). Our findings indicate advertising claims based on positive and negative emotionally framed
that the brain differentiates all three types of messages, with a higher messages (Bresnahan et al., 2013; Zahid et al., 2018). Positively framed
amplitude for positive framing than for negative and neutral message messages are likely to enhance consumers' engagement and motivate
framing, respectively. Our study consistently found, through analysis of them to purchase environmentally safe products.
P3 amplitude, processing of the emotional content of the message frames Second, negatively framed messages captured the initial attention of
at the third stage. At this later stage, the subjects would have developed subjects, reflected by the early P1 amplitude. Using negative contents in
an understanding of the contents of the messages. Positive and negative advertising would help marketers secure the attention of consumers in
message framing has emotional valence, and their contents have some the market at an early stage, which is likely to motivate the consumers to
conceptual meaning. The contents of the messages can induce purchase focus deeply on the advertised product.
behavior by reflecting potential gains and losses in the given context of Third, our research highlights the value and role of the neuroscience
green marketing. In contrast, neutral messages have no valence and do method in terms of studying consumers' immediate brain responses.
not contain slogans that encourage among consumers deep thought Previous behavioral studies have examined message framing, but did not
regarding the message. consider framing effects in the green marketing context. However, our
The present analysis found a significant effect for the various results indicate that emotionally framed messages are effective in their
message-framing types. The messages were processed differentially and role. Our findings clearly show that ERP is an effective method for
reflected non-similar purchase intentions. Although several studies have studying consumers' motivational engagement with emotionally and
produced strong evidence for the framing effect, we focused on exam- non-emotionally significant marketing stimuli.
ining, from an underlying neural perspective, the immediate brain The current findings support the application of laboratory experi-
response in the context of green marketing. Existing behavioral studies ments to examine marketing and promotional activities.
have not identified the mechanism by which consumers perceive green Neuromarketing-based Investigations of environmentally friendly
marketing as good, and how positive and negative framing are effective advertising messages could improve researchers' understanding of the
in this regard. For this reason, we used an ERP method and attempted to underlying neural mechanisms of the brain. Furthermore, these insights
explain why the framing effect is effective in the context of green mar- could help marketers by providing improved predictions of consumer
keting. In our ERP study, we found some components that were associ- behavior for targeted markets.
ated with message framing in green-marketing appeals. These
components where found across three stages: in the first stage, the P1; in 4.2. Limitations and directions for future research
the second stage, the N170; and in the third stage, the P3. The findings for
these three components are consistent with the hypothesis that the pro- The current study has some limitations that can be addressed in
cessing of the emotional content of message stimuli may occur in future studies. The message frames used in this study comprised a single
conjunction with attentional involvement. This was because these mes- factor: advertising a green product. However, different results may be
sages contain slogans and appeal to consumers to indulge in an envi- obtained for advertising and consumer-related promotional activities
ronmentally safe action or to avoid performing an unsafe action. that have more aspects, such as pricing and promotion at different
Based on underlying neural mechanisms and brain processing, our marketing levels. The ERP results indicate that applying an emotionally-
results indicate that emotional information in green-marketing message based framing effect is effective. Including specific emotionally
framing can evoke ERP components in Pakistani consumers. The results attracting words that strongly encourage customers to consider helping
suggest that subjects involve themselves in the messages, and that they the environment could be effective in specific market; such words may
clearly observe and understand the information given in the messages. comprise feelings such as pride, guilt, and shame. Another limitation to
Our participants focused on the threatening information as soon as it this study was that all subjects were male students; in the future, studies
appeared. This suggests that, when they encounter environment-safety- examining the message-framing effect should perform their in-
related slogans and information, consumers apply both their atten- vestigations using both male and female subjects, and with a broader
tional and emotional resources in their decision-making. Furthermore, in age group. We used three types of simple messages in this study; further
the context of green marketing, our findings suggest that consumers care work examining the verbs, nouns, and other types of emotional infor-
more about environmental safety. The participants showed an interest in mation structure used in the green-marketing context could be con-
protective measures for the environment by showing greater inference ducted in future studies.

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Declarations Cheng, F.F., Wu, C.S., Lin, H.H., 2014. Reducing the influence of framing on internet
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X. Wang: Conceived and designed the experiments; Analyzed and communications. J. Mass Commun. Q. 72 (2), 285–299.
interpreted the data. Eimer, M., 2000. Effects of face inversion on the structural encoding and recognition of
faces - evidence from event-related brain potentials. Cognit. Brain Res. 10 (1–2),
S. Iqbal and M. Awais: Analyzed and interpreted the data; Wrote the 145–158.
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R. Wang: Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the of facial expression: an ERP study of rapid brain responses to six basic emotions.
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processing: an ERP analysis of early and late interference effects. Brain Topogr. 20
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