The Effect of Tiktok Black Campaign Exposure on Purchase Intention Through Emotion and Curiosity

Abstract

TikTok’s growth as both a social-media and digital-commerce environment increases consumers’ exposure to black campaigns targeting products or brands. This study examines the effect of TikTok black campaign exposure on purchase intention, directly and through the mediating roles of emotion and curiosity within the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework. An explanatory quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted with 126 active TikTok users in Indonesia aged at least 18 years selected through purposive sampling. The measures adapted the C-ME, Consumption Emotion Set, Epistemic Curiosity Scale, and Spears and Singh purchase-intention scale. Data were analyzed using PLS-SEM in WarpPLS 8.0. Black campaign exposure positively affected emotion (β=0.874; p<0.001), curiosity (β=0.512; p<0.001), and purchase intention directly (β=0.254; p=0.001). Curiosity was the strongest direct predictor of purchase intention (β=0.520; p<0.001), while emotion had a weak positive effect (β=0.155; p=0.037). Emotion and curiosity jointly produced partial mediation with a total VAF of 61.3%; curiosity accounted for 66.4% of the total indirect effect. These findings indicate that black campaigns activate affective and cognitive mechanisms simultaneously, with curiosity serving as the more dominant pathway shaping purchase intention.