Benefit Mediates the Gratitude-Morality Link and Political Ideology Moderates the Effect

We investigate the effects on the public of government and companies acting responsibly to a threat of an emerging pandemic by use of an adaptation of the theory of dyadic morality. The effects of positive actions by government and companies are mediated by gratitude, a positive moral emotion, en route to its impact on felt benefits. Benefits then influence positive word of mouth, a kind of action tendency, but the effects are moderated by the degree of political ideology of the public. For the government, as benefit perceptions increase, positive word of mouth is higher for liberals than conservatives. For companies, positive word of mouth is greater for conservatives than liberals when benefits are perceived as low. These nuanced moderated effects reflect differences between conservatives and liberals, where liberals value social responsibility more than conservatives, whereas conservatives value company profitability more than liberals. Hypotheses are tested experimentally on two random samples of US adults (N1 = 177, N2 = 156). Results are discussed in the light of their implications for the theory of dyadic morality and responses to a new pandemic by government and company organisations as regulated by political ideology.