Communicating for Consumer Well-Being: Insights Across Domains
(A2026-133959)

AUTHORS

Zeynep Aslan Sisman, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University; Antonia Krefeld-schwalb, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University; Shemal Doshi, INSEAD; Meiying Wang, London Business School; Jan Koch, University of Vienna

ABSTRACT

Effective communication is a crucial lever for promoting consumer well-being. Across contexts, marketplaces, and social interactions, the ways in which information is conveyed, withheld, or interpreted shapes consumer judgment, choice, and behavior. This Special Session brings together four papers that demonstrate communication for consumer well-being is not the responsibility of a single actor: policymakers shape informational environments, marketers guide choices, and even consumers themselves can catalyze prosocial change. Together, these papers offer a multi-actor, multi-domain perspective on how communication strategies can enhance consumer welfare. “Weather Cues and Communication of Flood Risk Information” by Zeynep Aslan, Antonia Krefeld-Schwalb, and Bram Van den Bergh, examines how weather cues shape the effectiveness of flood-risk labels. Across experiments, weather interacts with property flood-risk labels to influence threat appraisals and preparedness intentions. This research shows that environmental cues are a powerful but overlooked factor in risk communication, providing a pathway for policymakers to boost consumer well-being through context-sensitive hazard warnings. “Is Labeling Only Low-Emission Products Sufficient to Promote Sustainable Choices? The Interplay of Gradual Labeling and Emission Predictability” by Shemal Doshi, Pierre Chandon, and Jad Chaaban assesses how the efficacy of carbon footprint labels on consumer food choices depends on the proportion of products carrying the label. With more consumer knowledge about emissions, labeling only top third of brands suffice. Complete labeling is needed when knowledge is scarce. The results offer a framework to guide policymakers on when to permit selective labeling and when to require mandatory, comprehensive disclosure. “The Divergent Impact of Missed Opportunities: How Missing Out Can Either Motivate or Demotivate Consumers to Purchase” by Meiying Wang, Jonathan Berman, and David Faro shows that the communication of missed opportunities can either hinder or spur consumer action. Large missed differences reduce purchase likelihood by devaluing current offers, whereas small differences increase expectations that future opportunities worsen and thereby motivate consumers to act. These findings show how opportunity-focused messages trigger different forms of regret and shape later choices, offering implications for helping consumers make more timely decisions. “Doing Good Louder – Turning Self-Silencers Into Self-Promoting Ambassadors Of Change” by Jan André Koch and Jan Willem Bolderdijk, explores how consumers themselves can diffuse moral behaviors (e.g., sustainable consumption) without risking backlash. The authors show that display of ambiguous moral cues (e.g., a pin) encourages others to inquire and increase willingness to discuss moral actions while reducing reputational concerns. The findings offer a consumer-driven communication tool for spreading sustainable behaviors.