Indulgent or self-controlled? How streamer characteristics and health-threat message framing drive purchase intentions

Abstract

Health-related live-streaming commerce increasingly relies on streamers to shape consumers' understanding of product claims, yet little is known about how lifestyle-oriented streamer characteristics interact with message framing to influence persuasion. This research aims to examine when and why streamer characteristics enhance or undermine the effectiveness of health-threat communication in live-streaming contexts. Drawing on Schema Congruity Theory and Regulatory Focus Theory, we conduct five pretests and four scenario-based experiments involving 3676 participants across multiple health-related product categories. The studies manipulate streamer characteristics (indulgent vs. self-controlled), health-threat message framing (high vs. low), and consumers' regulatory focus. The results reveal a robust matching effect: self-controlled streamers are more persuasive when delivering high-threat messages, whereas indulgent streamers are more effective when presenting low health-threat information. This congruence increases purchase intentions by enhancing perceived diagnosticity and reducing psychological reactance. Moreover, these effects are contingent on consumers’ motivational orientation—promotion-focused consumers respond more favourably to indulgent streamers paired with low health-threat messages, while prevention-focused consumers show the strongest responses to self-controlled streamers delivering high-threat information. The findings advance research on interactive commerce and health communication by identifying lifestyle-based streamer cues as a key driver of persuasion and by clarifying the psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions underlying these effects. From a managerial perspective, the results highlight the importance of aligning streamer characteristics, message framing, and audience segmentation in health-related live-streaming campaigns.