Seeking interpersonal distance: how embarrassment drives low facial prominence preference

Purpose This study explores how embarrassment influences consumers’ facial prominence preference in marketing stimuli and the underlying mechanism, as well as its boundary condition. Design/methodology/approach This research conducts three between-subjects experiments. Study 1 adopted a one-factor (embarrassment vs control) design, using product choice tasks (condoms/T-shirts) to manipulate embarrassment and test its effect on low facial prominence preference. Study 2 employed the same one-factor design, with an event recall task to induce embarrassment, aiming to examine the mediating role of the need for interpersonal distance. Study 3 used a 2 (embarrassment: yes vs no) × 2 (character type: human vs cartoon) design to explore the moderating role of character type and validate the moderated mediation mechanism. Findings Embarrassment increases preference for low facial prominence in human images, mediated by the need for interpersonal distance. This effect is attenuated when the characters are depicted as cartoons rather than humans. Originality/value This research identifies embarrassment as a new antecedent of facial prominence preference, uncovers an avoidance strategy for embarrassment and reveals character type as a critical boundary condition.