Does seeing bad make you do good? How witnessing retail transgressions influence responses to cause marketing offers

Can witnessing another individual commit a marketplace transgression (e.g., shoplifting) influence a consumer’s responsiveness to cause marketing (CM) offers? Four experiments demonstrate that consumers respond more favorably to CM offers as a means of atoning for another’s transgression. This vicarious moral compensation effect is observed only among high moral identifiers who feel psychologically close to (vs. distant from) the transgressor...