Testing the relationships emotions-behaviour with EIM dimensions as moderators

to recognise or manage positive and negative emotions. Different types of correlations (zero-order, partial and part) and the collinearity statistics (tolerance and VIF) were examined but it was concluded that multicollinearity was not responsible for lack of significant results in any of the other moderated regressions.

As a result, hypotheses H6 (The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of guilt on recycling intentions) and H7 (The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of pride on recycling intentions) were only partially supported (i.e. moderation

5.7 Testing the relationships emotions-behaviour with EIM dimensions as moderators

This section reports the results of the regressions that tested hypotheses H8 (The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of guilt on behaviour) and H9 (The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of pride on behaviour).

The tests carried out in Section 5.5 showed that intentions do not mediate the link emotions-behaviour. As a result when testing for moderating effects of the EIM dimensions, a non-mediated link between emotions and behaviour was considered.

A “

choice task. Behaviour was thus a binary variable coded with 1 if the subject mentioned the recyclable packaging among the provided justification and 0 if they did not mention it. The binary nature of the dependent variable led to the use of logistic regression for the testing of the moderating effects and this followed the procedures of hierarchical regressions as recommended by Aiken and West (1991)

and Jaccard et al. (1990). The centred value of the independent continuous variables (predictors and moderators) were used in each regression equation and the interaction terms were calculated by multiplying each centred EIM dimension with the dummy variables (Appendix 5.5).

T

behaviour

The regression indicated a first-order effect (see Step 1 T

W W W

T

W was not significant (Wald=

3.00, p>.05) (see Step 2 in Table 5.20). The negative value of the B coefficient and the Exp(B) revealed that the interaction term containing pride had a negative impact

T e pride increases the odds

of choosing the product with recyclable packaging decreases (see Figure 5.7 and detailed calculations in Appendix 5.7). Possible explanations for this might lie in the sample characteristic i.e. how the European sample relate to A interesting aspect of this finding might be linked to the level of pride that such adverts should include. It can be concluded that medium levels of emotions rather than high levels should be elicited as the latter would be less likely to trigger

A E B

e^B) of the independent variables has increased significantly compared to the regression carried out at Step 1 which did

O

acts as moderator only in the case of pride.

Table 5.20 H

B = logistic coefficient; e^B = exponentiated B Dependent variable: behaviour

Figure 5.7 Ethical choice probability with the interaction term recognition*pride

0

Very low Low Mean High Very high

Ethical choice probaility

Recognition of emotions

Pride Control

T emotions behaviour

T W

(Wald= 9.33, p<.01) on behaviour (see Step 1 in Table 5.21). However, the -conscious emotions were not significant (p=.837>.05) (see Step 2 in Table 5.21).

Table 5.21 M

B = logistic coefficient; e^B = exponentiated B Dependent variable: behaviour

I

moderator, neither does it have a significant main effect (i.e. and impact as an independent variable) on

T behaviour

Significant first- W

W W

Step 1 in Table 5.22). The regression carried out at Step 2 showed that no interaction effects were significant (p=.388 >.05). These results demonstrated that the variable

or the link

emotions-behaviour and it does not explain emotions-behaviour as an independent variable either.

Table 5.22 M

as a moderator

Step 1 Step 2

Independent variables B SE e^B p B SE e^B p

Management of emotions -.03 .33 .96 .906 .39 .63 1.48 .534

Guilt 1.78** .59 5.97 .002 1.83** .60 6.27 .002

Pride 1.94*** .59 6.97 .001 2.10*** .62 8.18 .001

Guilt x Management -.17 .85 .83 .835

Pride x Management -1.07 .88 .34 .222

Constant -1.38 .45 -1.39 .46 .24

^{2 5.81 5.95}

df 8 8

- 2 LL 109.82 107.92

R² .151 .169

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

B = logistic coefficient; e^B = exponentiated B Dependent variable: behaviour

T behaviour As shown in Table 5.23 at Step 1, there was a

first-W W -order effect for

W .06, p>.05). The regression carried out at Step 2 indicated that

T I

act as a moderator, neither does it have a significant impact as an independent

Table 5.23 M

Step 1 Step 2

Independent variables B SE e^B B SE e^B

Empathy .58 .33 1.79 .79 .66 2.22

Guilt 1.92** .61 6.88 2.03** .64 7.63

Pride 2.06** .61 7.87 2.08*** .63 8.06

Guilt x Empathy .16 .89 1.18

Pride x Empathy -.65 .83 .51

Constant -1.47 .47 -1.53 .50 .21

² 4.52 2.81

df 8 8

- 2 LL 106.64 105.383

R² .181 .192

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

B = logistic coefficient; e^B = exponentiated B Dependent variable: behaviour

The results of the four moderated logistic regressions presented above indicated that among all the EIM dimensions only

of the relationship emotions-ethical behaviour but only in the case of pride. Different types of correlations (zero-order, partial and part) and the collinearity statistics (tolerance and VIF) were examined but it was concluded that multicollinearity was

not responsible for lack of significant results in any of the other moderated regressions.

As a result, hypotheses H8 (The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of guilt on behaviour) and H9 (The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of pride on behaviour) were only partially supported (i.e. moderation happened only in the case

T

tests in relation to the developed hypotheses.

Table 5.24 Summary of hypotheses tests

H3 Intentions predict behaviour (i.e. ethical product choice).

Rejected

H4 G Accepted

H5 P Accepted

H6 The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of guilt on recycling intentions.

H8 The EIM dimensions will moderate the influence of guilt on behaviour.

5.8 Summary

The analysis conducted in this chapter has tested the hypotheses of the experimental study. The findings lead to the rejection of H1 and H2 which stated a positive and direct relationship between guilt and pride and intentions respectively (see Section 5.4 and Section 5.5). The results of the linear regressions presented in Section 5.5 pointed that recycling intentions did not act as a mediator between self-conscious emotions and behaviour, measured through product choice based on the recycling properties of the product. Thus hypothesis H3 was rejected. However, guilt

H H5 were accepted. H6 and H7 predicted that the EIM dimensions would moderate the relationship emotions-intentions and both hypotheses were partially accepted since empathy was found to act as a moderator, both in the case of pride and guilt (see Section 5.7) The results of the logistic regressions carried out in Section 5.8 led to the rejection of H8 which assumed that EIM dimensions would be moderators for the impact of emotions on behaviour and to the partial acceptance of H8 as the

Chapter 6 Conclusion

6.1 Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to present the key contributions of this thesis and to make recommendations for future research. In doing so, this chapter seeks to highlight the areas in which knowledge about the role of self-conscious emotions, particularly guilt and pride, have been advanced by this research project.

This chapter starts by presenting the rationale for the present research (Section 6.2), followed by an overview of the findings in the light of the set research questions (Section 6.3) and a summary of the limitations of the present research (Section 6.4).

Next the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed (Section 6.5 and 6.6). The chapter continues with recommendations for future research (Section 6.7) and concludes some final remarks (Section 6.8).