The Effect of Anthropomorphism and Sentiment of Statement on Anticipatory Guilt

People are often reluctant to comply with social causes because doing so may involve personal sacrifices of time, money, and effort for benefits that benefit society(Ahn et al.,2013). Yet people often feel obligated to comply with social causes and in turn, will contribute those sacrifices directly. The reason for this is that people want to avoid negative emotions in order to obtain positive ones (Erlandsson et al., 2016). This has been demonstrated in a variety of studies that utilize anthropomorphism, defined as the act of using human qualities in non-human entities, with social causes. An example of this is demonstrated in a study that used anthropomorphism in an effort to reduce meat consumption, a finding that was proven to be effective (Basso & Wang, 2019).

Prior research overall has demonstrated that anthropomorphism alone is able to influence people’s compliance through the feeling of anticipatory guilt, defined as the anticipation of feeling guilty (Ahn et al.,2013).This guilt alone may be sufficient to influence people to act in such a way that they will not feel negative emotions later. This prior research can be expanded to further analyze the effects of anthropomorphism on anticipatory guilt by using statements of sentiment that are defined as statements designed for participants to experience emotions, either positive or negative, in order to influence the degree of anticipatory guilt felt. Through the influence of these statements, we anticipated that participants who encounter anthropomorphism along with sentiment of statements would result in the most social compliance through the increase in anticipatory guilt felt.

Anthropomorphism and social compliance. Prior research has found that anthropomorphizing an object increases the amount of anticipatory guilt a person feels compared to when an object is not anthropomorphized. In a previous study conducted by Ahn et al.,2013, researchers found that participants were more compliant to social causes when the object is anthropomorphized than when the object is not. In a second experiment within the study, experimenters also found that anticipatory guilt was the mediating factor driving a person’s decision to comply to the social cause. Anticipatory guilt was significantly higher in the anthropomorphism condition compared to the non anthropomorphism condition. When the researchers controlled for anticipatory guilt, they found that anthropomorphism no longer had a significant effect on compliance, therefore suggesting that anticipatory guilt was the mediating factor for social compliance.(Ahn et al.,2013) Given this prior research, we anticipated to see a main effect of anthropomorphism on anticipatory guilt. We predicted that participants in the condition with anthropomorphism present will experience higher levels of social compliance thereby experiencing higher levels of anticipatory guilt overall compared to the second condition of non anthropomorphism.

Sentiment of statements on guilt. Sentiment of statements can influence the way individuals feel through the use of words that evoke certain emotions from individuals. Prior research has demonstrated the effect of word play on the amount of guilt felt. In a study conducted by Erlandsson et al., 2016, participants read three scenarios with each having a main overall context (e.g “Your grandmother who loved volunteering recently died.” ) These scenarios were written in a high-responsibility version that is defined as an act that requires more effort and responsibility on the subject’s part (e.g You know that your grandmother expected you to start volunteering.”) and three scenarios written in a low-responsibility version, defined as an act that requires less effort on the subject’s part, (e.g You know that your grandmother expected you to follow your own heart.”) but never both versions of the same scenario. Half of the participants were then asked to imagine how they would feel if they did not help and respond to three questions measuring guilt while the remaining half were asked to imagine how they would feel if they actually helped and to respond to three questions measuring their anticipated pleasure in doing so.

Overall, researchers found that anticipated guilt was significantly higher in the high-responsibility version compared to the low-responsibility versions, in which the warm glow feeling was rated higher in.(Erlandsson et al., 2016) In this study, the way situations were presented influenced the emotions felt in participants, either positive (pleasure) or negative (guilt). Through the use of presenting the scenarios using statements of sentiment, participants experienced emotions that influenced their feelings of anticipated guilt (Erlandsson et al., 2016). With this prior research, we anticipated to see a main effect of statements of sentiment. Through the use of phrasing certain statements of sentiment that would invoke either negative or positive emotions in participants, anticipatory guilt would be higher for those who receive negative statements as it would influence participants to feel more guilt overall. We anticipated to see a main effect of statements of sentiment on anticipatory guilt as it has been demonstrated in prior studies to do so.

Anthropomorphism and sentiment of statements. We anticipated that an interaction between anthropomorphism and sentiment of statements would occur and influence the amount of anticipatory guilt felt among participants. Prior research has demonstrated that anthropomorphism alone is able to influence anticipatory guilt while sentiment of statements may also as well; however, there is very limited research on utilizing both in order measure anticipatory guilt. We anticipated that this interaction would occur as previous research demonstrated the effect of anthropomorphism on anticipatory guilt through the measurement of social compliance in which individuals who viewed an anthropomorphized image felt compelled to comply with the issue due to feelings of anticipatory guilt (Ahn et al.,2013). In terms of the sentiment of statements, researchers found that those phrased in a way that promotes guilt through high responsibility would invoke feelings of guilt that were directly measured by researchers (Erlandsson et al., 2016). Given this prior research, we anticipated that utilizing both anthropomorphism and sentiment of statements would influence the amount of anticipatory guilt felt among participants as both have been shown to have an effect individually.

Goals of Present Research. In order to see this interaction occur, we conducted our experiment with the intent to demonstrate the effect of both anthropomorphism and sentiment of statements on anticipatory guilt, measured through the level of social compliance participants reported. We used a factorial design that manipulated the presence of anthropomorphism by having two levels; either present or not, and manipulated the level of sentiment in statements that contains two levels; one that invokes positive feelings through the use of a happy statement with positive words and one that invokes negative feelings from the reader using a sad statement with negative words to invoke negative emotions from participants.

Given these variables, we predicted there will be a significant effect of anthropomorphism on anticipatory guilt, such that people who are in the anthropomorphism condition will show a significantly larger amount of anticipatory guilt than those who are in the non-anthropomorphism condition. We also predicted that there will be a significant effect of the sentiment of a statement on anticipatory guilt, such that people who are shown a sad/negative statement will report a significantly larger amount of anticipatory guilt than those who are shown a happy/positive statement. In addition to this effect, we also predicted that there will be a significant interaction between anthropomorphism and sentiment of the statement such that when a negative statement is shown in conjunction with an anthropomorphized object, participants will report the most anticipatory guilt compared to those shown a positive statement without anthropomorphism present. In terms of this interaction, both negative statements and the presence of anthropomorphism drive the interaction.

We also predicted that when we hold the level of sentiment constant by using only a sad/negative statement, participants would feel more anticipatory guilt whether or not anthropomorphism is present or not. We also predicted that when we hold the level of anthropomorphism constant such that is only present, participants would feel more anticipatory guilt whether or not the level of sentiment is negative or positive. Therefore, we anticipated that a negative statement in the presence of anthropomorphism would increase anticipatory guilt significantly.

Method

Participants

In this experiment, 18 undergraduates from the University of California, Los Angeles were recruited as part of a psychology research methods class in return for course credit (mean age = 20 years). Participants must have correct or corrected vision and english comprehension skills.

Design

We conducted a 2x2 within participants factorial experiment. The independent variables were the use of anthropomorphism, either if it is present or not, and the level of sentiment in statements that is either positive or negative. Our dependent variable is anticipatory guilt that is defined as how obligated one feels to donate after reading the statement and/or viewing the anthropomorphized or non anthropomorphized picture. Participants were randomly assigned to view four different situations that reflect the four different conditions.

Materials

Campaigns and Cartoon Images. We randomly assigned participants to view a total of four different cartoon images that corresponded to the following campaigns: climate change, deforestation, recycling and decreasing carbon footprint. The cartoon images corresponding to these campaigns reflected the four conditions possible; anthropomorphism present accompanied with a positive or negative statement and no anthropomorphism present accompanied with a positive or negative statement. Campaigns and corresponding images were counterbalanced via latin square design.

Survey. Participants were assigned a survey link that was sent to them through email. Participants provided email addresses beforehand that was then randomly sorted to numbers one through 18, with the numbers having a specific sequence of images created via counterbalancing. Participants were emailed the assigned link corresponding to the number they received. The survey itself contained the campaigns with corresponding cartoon images unique to their random assignment.

Dependent Variable. Following each image is three questions; with the first measuring the participants compliance by asking how obligated they felt to donate money to the campaign. The remaining two questions were distractor questions designed to mask potential demand characteristics. These questions included how likely participants were willing to pick up trash that is not their own from the beach and how likely they are willing to use metal reusable straws. Responses to all questions were measured using a seven point liker scale as follows: 1= Very Unlikely, 2= Unlikely 3= Slightly Unlikely, 4=About 50% Likely, 5=Slightly Likely, 6=Likely,7=Very Likely. Responses for all survey questions were anonymous and participants had a total of 15 minutes to complete the survey.