Promoting Good Behavior: Does Social and Temporal Framing Make a Difference?

Social marketing research grows increasingly relevant in the face of persistent modern problems; this study examines how social
and temporal framing might influence the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns. By featuring diverse contexts, this
study addresses both individual and prosocial behaviors. With a basis in self-referencing and psychological distance research,
as well as social dilemma theory, the authors derive hypotheses about social and temporal framing effects. A between-subjects
experiment, incorporated into an online survey among a large student sample, reveals the relevance of temporal framing for
enhancing intentions to change both individual and prosocial behaviors. Social framing influences behavioral intentions especially
in the prosocial condition. The category of behavior determines the effectiveness of social marketing related to that behavior.
However, the small effect sizes and lack of globally interpretable effects indicate that social and temporal framing do not
make relevant differences in social marketing effectiveness.