Boycott, framing and morals: a political consumerism study on H&M

In this age of digital media, forms of collective action such as boycotts spread faster and reach more people than ever before. Yet, the information we consume is often framed to make us react in manners we don’t always understand or anticipate. These reactions are believed to be influenced by morals we all value to different degrees. The scope of this paper is to explore the impact of moral foundations on the link between boycott intentions and message framing, with a specific focus on sustainable fashion consumption. Exposing vignettes framing H&M’s actions to participants through a questionnaire, a strong case is built for negative framing’s influence on enhancing boycott intentions. Although no conclusive effects are observed for positive framing or the moral foundations studied, promising implications for future studies on this subject are indicated.