Seeing More Similar Others in Social Media: Using Legality Framing and Regulatory Focus to Alter Reactions to Alternative Medicinal Treatment Messages

ABSTRACT This study investigates how regulatory focus and portrayals of alternative medicinal treatments as illegal versus legal affect consumers' responses to social media messages in the virtual presence of similar others. Across a pilot study and two experiments, the findings show that when an alternative medicinal treatment is portrayed as illegal, promotion‐focused consumers engage more with social media messages that promote the treatment than prevention‐focused consumers. No such difference arises following exposures to legal frames. The online presence of more similar peers, who support an alternative medicinal treatment even when it is depicted as illegal, increases promotion‐focused consumers' engagement with social media messages that promote marijuana as an effective medical treatment, more so than among prevention‐focused consumers; relaxation mechanisms appear to underlie this influence. The virtual presence of less similar peers mitigates the effect. These results provide practical insights for the effective marketing communication of medical marijuana, as well as other forms of risky consumption.