Emotion, attitudes, norms and sources: Exploring sharing intent of disgusting online videos

Consumers are increasingly watching and sharing promotional and persuasive videos online via YouTube and other social media. Recent research has begun to explore both the content characteristics and the user motivations behind bona fide "viral" hits. The current study explores how both user motivations and emotional content of video messages containing the arousing emotion of disgust influence sharing intention among an undergraduate student sample (N = 456) and representative U.S. adult sample (N = 455). Some results mirror previous research and theory: Greater arousal and emotional response experienced while viewing was predictive of increased sharing intent across video message types and sources, as were positive attitudes and perceived social norms concerning sharing. Unique results also emerged in the data, revealing that advertising video messages elicited greater sharing intent than news videos and user-generated videos. In line with functional theories of disgust, videos which elicited higher-order, socio-moral disgust led to greater sharing intent than those that elicited sexual and pathogen avoidance disgusts. Implications for marketers and content creators are discussed.