This is MY Earth: Hybrid meat's impact on psychological ownership.

Abstract

Across two experimental studies, we examine the role of psychological ownership of the Earth and it's anthropomorphosis on hybrid meat purchase intentions as the result of proximal and distal message framing. Study 1 revealed that proximal (vs. distal) message framing (e.g., "Help take care of your (vs. the) Earth") significantly increased psychological ownership and purchase intentions compared to distal framing. Study 2 extended these findings by introducing anthropomorphism (e.g., a smiling Earth). We found that introducing anthropomorphism led to similar effects on psychological ownership and purchase intention levels, regardless of framing. Yet psychological ownership of the Earth, due to message framing and anthropomorphism, did not play a mediating role on higher purchase intentions. Our study provides theoretical contributions to psychological ownership and construal level theory, while offering further insights for marketers by emphasizing distal framing and when to use anthropomorphism in environmental messaging for hybrid products.