More than just empathy: The influence of moral emotions on boycott participation regarding products sourced from politically contentious regions

The primary objective of this research is to assess the influence of moral emotions (empathy and anger) on consumer buying decisions of products made in disliked sources in the context of third-country national consumers. The study employs data collected from the UK, France, and Germany consisting of 260, 261, and 244 respondents, respectively. The empirical results provide evidence to the influence of moral emotions on consumers’ attitudes towards buying Israeli goods. Concurrently however, the results show that, while anger towards Israel comprises the main factor that prompts boycotting intention, empathic concerns towards Arabs in the West Bank and Golan Heights (the Territories) have negligible influence on buying decisions. In addition, the results point to differences across the populations studied in the current research, especially with respect to the influence of involvement and subjective norms on behavioral intention. Implications are identified together with consideration of the study limitations.