Abstract: Regulatory fit theory proposes that the fit between regulatory focus and information frame will strengthen the individual’s evaluation on the information, as well as the affect and motivation. However, the regulatory focus involves two different types: situational focus and chronic focus, the former is induced by environmental factors, while the latter reflects stable personality. Thus, an interesting question is, whether the regulatory fits based on different types of regulatory focus have the same effect? And this is the purpose of the present study.
Experiment 1 adopted 2 (chronic regulatory focus: promotion vs. prevention) ×2 (information frame: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design to explore the influence of regulatory fit between chronic focus and information frame upon the effect of persuasion. Experiment 2 also adopted 2 (situational regulatory focus: promotion vs. prevention) ×2 (information frame: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design to explore the effect of regulatory fit between situational focus and information frame upon the effect of persuasion. Data were collected from 166 college students (113 in Experiment 1 and 53 in Experiment 2).
In experiment 1, MANOVA revealed significant interactions between regulatory focus and information frame on the information value and mood intensity, while in experiment 2, in addition to information value and mood intensity, MANOVA revealed significant interaction on behavior intention. Taken together, results showed the regulatory fit based on chronic regulatory focus and the regulatory fit based on situational regulatory focus have the same influence on information value and mood intensity (they both improve the value of information and increase the intensity of mood); however, they have different influence on behavior intention (the former has no impact on behavior intention while the latter can improve behavior intention).
This conclusion is beneficial to understand the difference between chronic regulatory focus and situational regulatory focus, as well as the difference between the two kinds of regulatory fit based on them.

Key words: regulatory fit effect, regulatory focus, chronic regulatory focus, situational regulatory focus