Advertising Psychology Research Paper

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Abstract

Principles of psychological science have been applied to advertising practice since both fields were relatively young. The study of information processing, attitudes, and persuasion creates a foundation for advertising psychology because each is an important  determinant of achieving advertising’s main  functions:  to inform, persuade, and influence.

  1. Introduction
  2. The Psychological Study of Advertising
  3. Perception
  4. Memory and Learning
  5. Attitudes
  6. Persuasion

1. Introduction

The  Advertisers Handbook, published  in  1910  by  the International  Textbook Company, offered a wide range of advice to advertising professionals. According to the handbook, an advertisement should not be too general, a headline  should  not  be silly or  deceptive,  and  an  ad should be arranged logically, be concise, contain a proper amount of matter for the commodity being sold, and so forth. A few pages of the handbook were even devoted to the use of psychology in advertising: ‘‘Study of the goods or service to be sold is highly important,  but no more important  than the study of that wonderful subject, the human mind. The advertiser will do well, in all his work, to give special attention to psychological principles.’’

The handbook’s advice has been heeded. Advertisers have used both psychological theory and method to gain a better understanding of consumers. The study of information processing has been particularly influential as advertisers  have  sought  to  gain  consumers’  attention   and ensure that consumers interpret and understand their messages and (hopefully) retain some of the information. The attitude construct has been particularly important in advertising psychology because advertisements  are generally intended  to create positive attitudes toward some objects and because attitudes are an important  determinant of behavior. Thus, an understanding of attitudes is doubly important  for advertisers given that attitudes are both desired outcomes and causes of desired behavior. Therefore, the psychological study of attitude change, or persuasion, is another crucial part of advertising psychology. This research paper reviews important aspects of psychology that also play an important role in advertising.

2. The Psychological Study Of Advertising

2.1.  Historical Perspectives

The scientific study of psychology is roughly 125 years old,  with  the  first  laboratory   of  psychology  being founded   in   1879   by  Wilhelm   Wundt   in   Leipzig, Germany.  Modern  advertising  is  only  slightly  older than scientific psychology, having appeared in the earliest newspapers  circa 1850, reaching  a circulation  of approximately  1 million readers.  The two fields came together in the earliest application of psychological principles  to advertising  practice  in America in 1896. At the University of Minnesota, Harlow Gale conducted systematic  studies  of  the  influence  of  ad  placement within  a  page  on  attention,  the  impact  of necessary versus superfluous words in headlines, and how various colors used in ads might influence readers’ attention.

Gale’s research  did  not  receive  wide  attention,  but several years later another researcher, Walter Dill Scott, wrote  a series  of research papers  on  psychological  aspects  of advertising.  Scott’s research  on advertising  psychology tended to focus on the concept of suggestion. He believed that advertising was primarily a persuasive tool, rather than an informational device, and that advertising had its effect on consumers in a nearly hypnotic manner. People were  thought  to  be  highly  susceptible  to  suggestion, under a wide variety of conditions, so long as the suggestion was the only thought available to them. According to Scott, advertising was most effective when it presented consumers with a specific direct command. ‘‘Think Different,’’ a suggestion used by Apple Computer,  is a good example of a direct  command,  but it would  not necessarily be an effective advertisement because it does not  tell  consumers  how  to  think  differently.  A more effective advertisement might be ‘‘Use Apple Computers.’’

2.2.  Contemporary Perspectives

It is interesting  to note that the concept of suggestion went out of style for some time among scientific psychologists.  It  is  somewhat  unflattering   to  think  of people as automatons  who unthinkingly  follow whatever instruction  is given to them; however, contemporary scientific psychologists have once again embraced the notion that a fair proportion  of human behavior is due to influences of which people are entirely unaware. One  intriguing   line  of  contemporary   research   has shown that simply asking people whether they intend to purchase  a new car sometime during  the next year dramatically increases the chances that they actually do purchase  a  new  car  during  that  year—even  if they respond  ‘‘no’’  to  the  initial  inquiry.  Remarkable  as these ideas are, advertising has relied on a number  of basic, tried-and-true psychological principles  that  are covered in the remainder  of this research paper.

One very general model  of advertising  effects, the AIDA (Attention,  Interest,  Desire, Action) model, has roots  in  Scott’s writings.  In  1913,  Scott proposed  a model of advertising effects that had three stages: attention,   comprehension,   and  understanding.   Over the  course  of several decades,  Scott’s model  evolved into the AIDA model, which is still in use. According to this model, advertising, or promotions  more generally, must first garner the attention  of consumers  and help them to develop beliefs about the product  or service. Second, advertising should  create interest  or positive feelings about  the product /service. Third,  advertising or promotions  should instill in consumers a desire for the  product /service,  thereby  helping  them  to  form purchase   intentions.   Finally,   consumers   must   be convinced  to  take  action,  that  is,  to  purchase   the product /service. This research paper covers all of these aspects of advertising psychology and more. It is important  to note,  however,  that  the  AIDA model  represents   a strong version of advertising effects.

2.3.  Strong and Weak Models of Advertising  Effects

Advertising can strongly persuade consumers into immediate buying, or it can have a more subtle effect by  reinforcing  people’s existing  propensities  to  buy certain  brands.  The psychological processes underlying  these  two  mechanisms   also  differ.  The  strong model focuses on consumers’ immediate psychological or  behavioral  reactions  where  explicit  advocacy and rationales of advertising messages are vital. The weak model emphasizes brand awareness where advertising is viewed as a reminder of a brand or source of information. For example, according to the strong model, Mark may decide to go to the shopping mall immediately after viewing a television commercial that says, ‘‘40% off any purchase  at  Macy’s.’’ On  the  other  hand,  David may buy Coke instead of Pepsi because he has greater familiarity with the Coke brand name, although both brands were initially in his consideration set.

Whether the strong or weak theory provides a better explanation  for advertising effects hinges on numerous factors. For example, strong effects are more likely to occur in ‘‘high-involvement’’ situations where advertising directly aims at changing individuals’ attitudes. However, when consumers have a predetermined  set of alternative brands or are in a ‘‘repeat buying’’ situation where purchase decisions tend to be habitual, weak reinforcement enhances long-term brand awareness, familiarity, salience, and brand associations. In any event, for advertising to have either strong or weak effects, it must first be perceived by prospective consumers.

3. Perception

The first issue is the process of getting the advertising ‘‘into’’ consumers. The sheer amount of stimuli around people is quite overwhelming. Consider all of the following  stimuli   to  which   people   are  constantly being  exposed  but  are  unconsciously  ‘‘filtering out’’: the  air rushing  into  their  mouths  or nostrils  as they breathe,  the  sensation  of tightness  where their  shoes are touching  their  feet, the color of the walls nearest them,  and  so forth.  When  one considers  all of these things,  it is remarkable  that  any advertising makes it into people’s consciousness at all. Nevertheless, if advertising is to reach consumers,  they must first and foremost be exposed to it.

3.1.  Exposure

Exposure is the first stage in perception,  and it occurs when people achieve physical proximity to some stimulus. Whenever something activates their sensory receptors, it means they have been exposed to that something. A printed advertisement must activate rods and cones in people’s eyes, and a radio advertisement must move the small bones that make up people’s inner ears.

This  activation  of sensory  receptors  may  occur  at different threshold  levels, with the lower, terminal, and difference thresholds being important to advertisers. The lower threshold is the minimum amount of stimulus that is necessary for people to be aware of a sensation. Images presented very briefly (i.e., a few milliseconds) fall below the lower threshold and are imperceptible to people. The terminal threshold is the point at which additional increases in stimulus intensity produce no awareness of the  increase.  The  difference threshold  is the  smallest noticeable change in stimulus intensity. These threshold levels have aroused  interest  among advertisers  due to their application to subliminal advertising.

During the late 1950s, Jim Vicary claimed to be able to influence people without them even knowing that they had been exposed to influence attempts. Vicary claimed to have increased soft drink and popcorn sales by subliminally presenting  messages to movie viewers. Years later, Vicary confessed to fabricating his claims, but the notion  that  people  could  be  subliminally  influenced took hold somewhere in the popular imagination. Sporadically throughout  the next  several decades, the question of whether subliminal presentation  of persuasive messages could influence consumer  behavior was debated. It is now known that subliminal presentation of stimuli  can  influence  attitudes  and  behavior,  but  not quite in the way that Vicary suggested.

In 1968, Robert Zajonc discovered that positive attitudes can be induced simply by repeatedly exposing people to a subliminally presented  stimulus, a finding that he termed the ‘‘mere exposure’’ effect. Participants in these  studies  were repeatedly  exposed  to a set of unfamiliar stimuli (e.g., Chinese ideographs), although the  exposures   were  so  fast  that   participants   were unaware  of even having seen the  stimuli.  Yet, when asked to evaluate a variety of similar stimuli, some of which they had been exposed to and others of which had  not  been  presented  to them,  they evaluated  the stimuli  to  which  they  had  been  previously  exposed more  positively  than  they  evaluated  similar  stimuli that had not been presented  to them subliminally. Of course,  developing  favorable  attitudes  toward  something is a long way from actually getting people to buy something;  however, it is now known  that  subliminal presentation  of stimuli can also influence behavior.

Individuals  can  be ‘‘primed’’  by the  subliminal  (or even supraliminal  under  certain  conditions)  presentation  of stimuli  in  essentially the  same way that  they prime a pump (i.e., by filling it with fluid so that it is ready for immediate use). Following the presentation of a primed concept, individuals are more likely to use that concept given an appropriate opportunity.  For example, individuals  primed  with  the  concept  of elderly  were observed to walk slower than individuals primed with neutral concepts. However, priming is a relatively weak influence on behavior and simply could not make people get up  in the  middle  of a movie to go fetch soft drinks and popcorn. There are far more effective ways in which to influence consumer behavior.

3.2.  Attention

One of the enduring problems facing advertisers is attracting consumers’ attention. ‘‘Zipping and zapping’’ behavior is extremely common; television viewers record programs and zip (fast-forward)  through  the commercials or zap (eliminate commercials during recording or change the channel when they appear) them altogether. Drivers change the radio station when advertisements come on, they look away when billboards annoy them, and so forth. Attention is simply the conscious allocation of cognitive resources to some stimulus, but it is hard to grab.

A number of strategies have been used by advertisers to attract consumers’ attention. Theories of human motivation have been popular guidelines for advertisers. For example, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs posits five levels of motives that are common to all people: physiological (e.g., food, sex), safety (e.g., protection  from the elements), belongingness (e.g., acceptance by others), esteem (e.g., admiration  of others),  and self-actualization (e.g., fulfillment of potential). Advertisers have tried to attract attention by positioning their products to fulfill one or more  of these  needs.  Exercise equipment  and healthy food appeal to physiological needs, bicycle helmets and smoke alarms appeal to safety needs, mouthwash  and  acne creams appeal  to belongingness needs, designer clothing and luxury automobiles appeal to esteem needs,  and  computer  software and  military service have even been made to appeal to self-actualization needs. One might imagine that nearly any product can be positioned  to appeal to nearly any need—all in the name of attracting attention.

Properties  of the stimulus can also be manipulated to attract attention.  Size, color, intensity, contrast, position,  movement,  novelty, and so forth all can be used to attract attention.

3.3.  Interpretation

Interpretation is the way in which meaning is assigned to stimuli. People exposed to exactly the same stimulus may interpret it very differently. For example, they may perceive a fuzzy kitten  as an adorable target for cuddling or as a loathsome beast that causes sneezing and hives. Individual,  situational,  and stimulus  characteristics all can influence the interpretation of stimuli.

At the individual level, consumers’ expectations, motives, and attitudes all can have a profound influence on they way in  which  they  interpret  advertisements. When clear cola was introduced,  consumers  expected it to taste different from the traditional caramel-colored colas; however, clear cola did not taste much different from brown colas, and many consumers  were turned off by this.  The  violation  of their  expectations  may have, at least in part, caused them to ultimately reject the  clear cola. Motives and  attitudes  are particularly likely  to  have  an  influence  on  the  interpretation of ambiguous stimuli. Advertisers who do not send clear messages may be opening themselves up to very different,   and   possibly  unflattering,   interpretations  that reflect consumers’ own motives and attitudes.

At a situational level, the context in which an advertisement  appears  can have an influence  on how it is interpreted.  Several years ago, a prominent  newspaper put out a Sunday supplement  that  featured a lengthy research paper on starvation  and  drought  in Africa, followed immediately by a lengthy pictorial on the coming season’s  high-fashion   formal   wear.   The   following week,  there  was  a  section  in  the  same  supplement that was devoted to outraged letters from readers and a formal apology by the newspaper. Rarely are pictorials on fashion the target of so much outrage, but the context made a huge difference.

At a stimulus level, interpretations vary a great deal as well. As noted previously, stimulus ambiguity opens doors for motives and attitudes to have their influence on interpretations. Other  stimuli  can have vastly different   interpretations  due   to   cultural   differences.

Different colors and numbers have different culturally laden meanings in different countries. There used to be a  brand  of cold  medicine  called  ‘‘666.’’  This  brand likely did not fare well among conservative Christian consumers; but it might be prized in cultures where the number six has a positive meaning.

4. Memory And Learning

Memory is complex;  we can  remember  toys that  we wanted as children, yet we sometimes cannot remember what we did the weekend before last. The simple change of a single word (e.g., how fast was the car going when it ‘‘bumped’’ [or ‘‘smashed’’] into the pedestrian?) can substantially  alter our  memories.  Yet it has been estimated  that  over the  course  of a lifetime, the  average human  stores approximately  500 times the amount  of information that is in a full set of encyclopedias. Given these seemingly strange contradictions  regarding memory,  what  hope  can  advertisers  have  of getting  their products, brands, and ideas into consumers’ memories?

4.1.  Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

Memory involves three main processes: encoding (the process  by which  information  is put  into  memory), storage  (the  process  by which  information  is maintained   in  memory),   and  retrieval  (the   process  by which information is recovered from memory).

Encoding may be visual, acoustic, or semantic. Visual encoding and acoustic encoding are self-explanatory; they are named for the sensory modality through which they operate. Semantic encoding refers to the general meaning of an event. For example, one might encode a television advertisement  in  terms  of  the  visuals  presented,   the sounds that accompany it, or the general idea that there is a sale at the market.

Storage may be short term or long term. Short-term memory, or working memory, is of quite limited capacity and is used to hold information in consciousness for immediate  use. Long-term  memory  is quite  vast and can retain  information  for extremely  long periods  of time (e.g., some childhood memories last until death).

Retrieval also comes in different forms. Explicit memory is tapped by intentional  recall or recognition of items  or  events.  Implicit  memory  is the  unintentional recollection and/or influence of prior experience on   a   current    task.   On   implicit   memory   tests, respondents    are   unaware   that   memory   is   being accessed. Implicit  memory  is assessed in a variety of ways such as word fragment completion  (words seen previously  are more  likely to be completed  than  are words not seen previously) and time savings for tasks that have been done before. Advertisers may be particularly interested in explicit memory because the ability to intentionally  recall information  serves as a good measure of advertising effectiveness.

4.2.  Short and Long-Term Memory

Short-term  memory is of relatively little consequence to advertisers because it does not, by definition,  have any  ‘‘staying power.’’ Short-term   memory   may  be important  for direct response advertising, where consumers are asked to call a phone  number  to order or request additional  information.  But there is little that an advertiser can do with short-term memory. The primary  function  of short-term  memory  is to  allow people to perform  mental work such as calculating a sums or remembering  a telephone  number  until  they can either  dial it or write it down.  The fairly recent trend  of placing advertisements  on shopping  carts in supermarkets  might be a good way for advertisers  to keep their products  in short-term  memory while people are doing their grocery shopping. In general, however, for an advertisement to be effective, it must work its way into long-term memory.

One bright spot for advertisers hoping to etch their work in consumers’ long-term memory is the fact that most  theorists   believe  that  long-term  memory  has nearly  unlimited  capacity.  So, there  is always room for  more  information.  But what  is  the  best  way in which to achieve storage in long-term memory?

Some information is stored in long-term memory accidentally (i.e., unintentionally), but most information that makes it to long-term memory is encoded semantically. According to one model of memory, information is better remembered when it is thoroughly processed. To the extent  that  people elaborate on, and think  deeply about, a particular  piece of information,  they are more likely to be able to recall it later. This notion of cognitive elaboration is important in the understanding  of persuasion as well. Clearly, advertisers would do well to generate ads that cause people to think  deeply or discuss extensively.  According to  another  model  of memory, retrieval  is enhanced  to  the  extent  that  learning  and retrieval occur under similar conditions. This bodes poorly  for  advertisers  given  that  the  encoding  and storage  of  advertising  rarely  occur  under  the  same conditions as the actual buying behavior. Advertisements tend to be absorbed most everywhere except the marketplace.

4.3.  Processing Pictures Versus Text

Pictures  enhance  advertising  effectiveness in  several ways: They help to get the audience’s attention,  they provide information about the brand and product  use, and they help to create a unique brand image. Because people examine the visual elements before the verbal elements,  pictures  in advertising  are a useful tool as attention  grabbers. For example, extensive use of sex appeal and celebrity endorsement  in advertising can be understood  in this context.

Images and text are processed  differently. Pictorial information  seems to be processed  more  holistically, whereas verbal information is processed more sequentially. Information conveyed by pictures is recalled and recognized more easily than is textual information. Therefore, the fact that more than two-thirds  of print advertisements today have pictures covering more than half of the available space is not surprising. So, why are pictures more memorable than words?

According  to  Paivio’s dual-coding  model,  different codes exist in memory for verbal material and pictorial material.  Pictures  tend  to be remembered  over verbal information because they activate both verbal codes and pictorial  codes  spontaneously.  This  ease of cognitive access leads to the facilitation of memory. In addition, ads with concrete, easily identifiable pictures (e.g., celebrities) or realistic pictures are more memorable than ads with  abstract  or unidentifiable  pictures.  Furthermore, consumers  exhibit more favorable attitudes  when they see identifiable objects (e.g., an Adidas logo, a picture of Michael Jordan) than when they simply view text (e.g., the combination of alphabetical letters P-U-M-A).

Memory effects of text vary depending on how difficult it is for perceivers to comprehend  the text. When the text is complex, people engage in more elaborative processing, resulting in a greater number of associations in memory as well as improved  memory. Finally, pictures  and  text  interact.  Congruency  between  pictures and ad copy enhances consumers’ recall.

4.4.  Repetition and Learning

Advertising repetition  is generally known  to enhance memory  by strengthening  memory  traces  because  it increases redundancy and provides more encoding opportunities to process the message, leading to higher levels of brand  name recall. Nevertheless, advertising repetition rarely works in such simple ways. For example, varying the interval between message repetitions affects memory  of an  advertising  message. Although not without exceptions, memory for repeated material generally improves as the time between presentations of  advertising  material  increases,  particularly   when there  is a delay between the subsequent  presentation of the stimulus and the memory test.

Another explanation of learning through repetition is derived from encoding variability theory, which predicts that presenting a series of ads containing slight variations of a theme enhances  memory for the ad material. For example, according to this view, repeated presentation of a bottle of Absolut Vodka in different contexts helps consumers to retain its brand name in their memory.

Attention,   recall,   and   brand   awareness   initially increase,  then  level off, and  ultimately  decline  as the number of exposures increases. At least two explanations are available for this ‘‘wear-out’’ effect: inattention  and active information processing. With increasing repetition, viewers no longer attend to the message, and this inattention causes forgetting. According to the active information   processing   perspective,   an   audience   rehearses two  kinds  of  thoughts:   thoughts   stimulated   by  the message reflecting message content (i.e., message-related thoughts) and other thoughts based on associations reflecting previous experiences (i.e., people’s own thoughts).  With the initial exposure to a message, people’s thoughts  tend to be message related,  but at some level of repetition,  people’s thoughts  stem mainly from associations that are only indirectly linked to the message. These thoughts are less positive toward the product than are message-related thoughts, primarily because the latter were selected to be highly positive.

4.5.  Low and High-Involvement Learning

Learning may occur either in a situation  where consumers  are  highly motivated  to  process  the  advertising material or in a situation  where consumers  have little motivation to learn the material. For example, a woman reading an automobile magazine in a dentist’s office is less involved  than  another  woman  reading  the  same magazine prior to purchasing a new car. Personal, product,  and  situational  factors jointly affect the level of involvement.  A different level of involvement is likely to follow, for example, depending on whether the individual  perceives the  advertised  product  as enhancing self-image (i.e., personal  factor) or entailing  risk (i.e., product  factor). And this whole perception  of the product will again be influenced by whether the consumer views the product  for personal use or views it as a gift (i.e., situational factor).

High involvement stimulates semantic processing, whereas low involvement is linked to sensory processing.  Text-based  information   is  better  remembered when  viewers are  highly  involved,  whereas  graphic oriented  information  exerts a greater impact on viewers’ memory  when  they  have  low involvement.  The study of learning and memory is important  for understanding  how consumers  obtain  information  about  a product or service. Another primary goal of advertising is to persuade,  so the next section considers the psychological study of attitudes and persuasion.

5. Attitudes

The attitude  construct  has been recognized  as one of the  most  indispensable  concepts  in psychology. It is similarly crucial in the study of advertising. But what exactly is an attitude? For a psychologist or an advertiser, an attitude refers to an evaluation along a positive–negative continuum. For purposes of this research paper, an attitude  is defined as a psychological tendency  to evaluate an object with some degree of favor or disfavor. The target of an attitude  is called the  attitude object. When an individual says, ‘‘This pie is lovely’’ or ‘‘That car is no good at all,’’ that person is expressing his or her attitudes.  When  the individual  says, ‘‘This pie is fattening’’ or ‘‘That car has poor  acceleration,’’ the  person  is expressing  his or her  beliefs. Attitudes are different from beliefs, although  the latter  help to make up the former. Beliefs are units  of information that an individual has. Beliefs may be facts or opinion, and  they  may be positive,  negative,  or  neutral  with regard to the target.

5.1.  The Structure of Attitudes

Attitudes  are  generally  not  thought  of as monolithic constructs; they are made up of conceptually and empirically distinct  components.  At a very basic level of analysis, attitudes have three important  components: affective, behavioral, and cognitive. Affect refers to feelings and emotional components  of attitudes.  Behavior, of course, refers to behavior that an individual takes with regard  to  a target.  Cognition  refers  to  the  beliefs or thoughts that an individual has about a target.

Affective, behavioral, and cognitive processes help to form attitudes.  The mere exposure effect suggests one way in which positive affect may arise. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning  are two additional ways in  which  affective processes  influence  people’s attitudes.  The  continuous   pairing  of some  stimulus and a reward (or punishment) creates positive (or negative) affect. In advertising, brands of clothing are nearly always paired with attractive models. The models are intended  to create affectively positive feelings, and advertisers hope that people will be conditioned to like their brands of clothing.

Behavior also contributes to the formation of attitudes in that  sometimes  people  infer their  attitudes  on  the basis of their previous behavior. Self-perception theory posits that  people infer their  attitudes  on the basis of their past behavior, particularly when they believe that their behavior has been freely chosen. For example, if someone points out that Jane always wears green, she may infer that she has some affinity for green. But if Jane always wears green because her school has a strict dress code requiring her to wear green, she is unlikely to infer that she has a favorable attitude toward green.

Cognition  is another  important  antecedent  of people’s attitudes.  A cognitively  based  learning  process occurs when people acquire information about attitude objects.  People may gain information  through  direct experience such as when a free trial product  is sent in the mail or when a free sample is offered in a store. Or, people may gain information  indirectly,  for example, when a television commercial shows them the benefits of owning a particular make and model of automobile. People’s beliefs about attitude  objects have been proposed  as a central  determinant  of attitudes.  Indirect learning,  or  observational  learning,  is  an  important tool for advertisers.  Consider  any advertisement  that shows a model using a product to benefit in some way. It is hoped that viewers will develop favorable attitudes toward the product by learning how others have benefited from the product.

So, attitudes generally have affective, behavioral, and cognitive components. However, it is not necessary for all attitudes  to have all three components.  Some attitudes may be based primarily on affective factors (e.g., attitudes toward tequila), and others may be based primarily on cognitive factors (e.g., most people probably feel mildly positive about  photosynthesis  due to the important  functions performed by the process, but they probably do not have strong emotions about it).

One very influential  model  of the  structure  of attitudes  is  Martin  Fishbein’s   expectancy-value   model.

Fishbein proposed that attitudes are a multiplicative function of two things: (a) the beliefs that an individual holds about a particular attitude object and (b) the evaluation of each belief. According to the expectancy value model,  beliefs are represented  as the  subjective probability  that  the  object  has  a particular  attribute. The model can be expressed as a mathematical function:

Advertising Psychology Research Paper form1

where Ao is the attitude toward the object, bi is a belief about the object, and ei is the evaluation of that belief. According to Fishbein, people’s attitudes  are typically based on five to nine salient beliefs. So, if a researcher wanted to know someone’s attitude toward a particular brand of clothing, the researcher might ask that person to estimate the likelihood that a particular brand has a variety  of attributes  (e.g.,  fashionable,  durable,  well priced)  and  how  positive  or  negative  each  of those attributes  is. The  researcher  could  then  compute  an estimate  of the  person’s attitude  by multiplying  the pairs of scores and then summing the products.

The expectancy-value  model also implies that  persuasion is largely a function of message content.  That is,  favorable  attitudes  can  be  produced   by  making people  believe that  an  object  is very likely  to  have some  desirable  trait,  by making  people  believe  that some trait is very favorable, or by both. For example, an advertiser  might endeavor to make people believe that its automobile  is very reliable (i.e., influence the subjective  probability  of beliefs)  or  to  make  people believe that  its  automobile’s ability  to  take  turns  at very high  speeds  is  highly  desirable  (i.e.,  influence the evaluation of a particular attribute).

Although  the  expectancy-value  model seems to be perfectly logical, it may seem surprising to suggest that all attitudes are based on a series of beliefs. Consider, for example, the mere exposure research discussed earlier. According to Zajonc, preferences need no inferences (i.e., people may like something without having any beliefs about it). Under some conditions, attitudes may be formed  outside  of people’s conscious  awareness, or attitudes may be directly retrieved from memory rather than ‘‘computed’’ based on a mental review of salient beliefs. However, it is generally accepted that highly elaborated  attitudes  are more  influential  than poorly  elaborated  attitudes.  So far, the  discussion  of attitude structure  has considered how different aspects of a single attitude  relate  to  one  another.  Next,  the discussion  considers  how different attitudes  relate to one another.

One of the most enduring  psychological principles developed during the 20th century is the simple notion that  people  have  a desire  for  cognitive  consistency. Cognitive consistency is the simple notion that beliefs and actions should be logically harmonious.  If an individual believes that cats make good pets but hates her pet cat, she has beliefs that are inconsistent;  if an individual  believes that  cats make good pets and she loves her cat, she has beliefs that  are consistent.  For most people, cognitive inconsistency is unpleasant,  so they take steps to achieve consistency.

One consistency theory with many advertising-related applications  is Heider’s balance theory. Balance theory was initially applied  to cognitive consistency  between dyads (two units)  and among triads (three  units),  but because most research has examined triads, this research paper focuses on this arrangement. The triad arrangement pertains to the attitudinal  relationships among a perceiver (p), an other (o), and an attitude object (x). Consider the example where Cody has recently met an individual named Sam, and Cody likes Sam quite a bit. One afternoon,  Cody learns that Sam loves to listen to country music.  However,  Cody  cannot  stand  country  music. How does the fact that Sam loves country music make Cody feel? Probably not very good; the triad of Cody, Sam, and country  music is not balanced.  However, if Cody loved country  music, Cody liked Sam, and Sam loved  country  music,  all  would  be  simpatico.  These ideas illustrate the basic tenets of Heider’s balance theory. As can be seen in Fig. 1, there are eight possible sets of relationships among the triads: four balanced and four imbalanced.   One  simple  way  in  which  to  identify whether  a triad  is balanced  or not  is to calculate the product  of the  three  relationships.  If the  product  is positive, the triad is balanced; if the product is negative, the triad is imbalanced.

The efficacy of well-liked, or celebrity, endorsers may be explained at least in part by evoking balance theory. The viewers of the advertisement are expected to have a favorable attitude toward the endorser (e.g., Britney Spears), and the endorser is clearly portrayed as having a positive attitude  toward the advertised product  (e.g., cola). To maintain balance, viewers also should adopt a positive attitude toward the cola. Alternatively, viewers could decide to dislike the cola and change their attitude toward Spears so as to maintain a balanced triad. Balance theory also helps to explain one way in which consumer trends  migrate.  People who become friends  with one another  often adopt  attitudes  similar  to their  friends’ attitudes.  A classic study by Theodore  Newcomb illustrated  this  point  with  women  who  lived together  at college;  over  time,   the   women’s  political   attitudes became more and more similar.

Advertising Psychology Research Paper f1FIGURE 1    Eight possible triads proposed by Heider’s balance theory. The triads in the top row are balanced, and the triads in the bottom row are imbalanced.

Another  theory  that  has  roots  in  cognitive  consistency, and has been very influential in advertising and consumer behavior, is cognitive dissonance theory. Leon Festinger proposed cognitive dissonance theory in 1957, and it spurred  more research  than  perhaps  any other social psychological  theory.  Cognitive  dissonance  has been defined as a feeling of discomfort that arises as a result of one’s awareness of holding two or more inconsistent  cognitions.  Often, dissonance  is aroused  when one behaves in a manner  that is inconsistent  with his or her beliefs. For example, Greg may believe that Japanese cars are superior to cars made in America, but if he buys an American car, he will likely experience cognitive  dissonance.  Because cognitive  dissonance  is uncomfortable, people are motivated to reduce the feeling of dissonance by changing their behavior, trying to justify their behavior by changing their beliefs, or trying to justify their behavior by adding new beliefs. Having purchased  an American car, Greg might try to reduce cognitive dissonance by investing in Japanese auto manufacturers,  by changing his belief in the superiority  of Japanese cars, or by adding a new belief to help regain consistency, for example, ‘‘My car may be American, but many of the engine parts are from Japan.’’

When people make large-scale purchases,  they often experience what is known as post decisional  dissonance. Large expenditures  may arouse dissonance because they are inconsistent  with the need to save money or make other purchases. Furthermore,  making a purchase  decision necessarily means giving up some attractive features on the unchosen alternatives (e.g., buying a Sony means not buying a Samsung). In a decision-making  context, dissonance may be reduced by revoking the decision, by bolstering the attractiveness of the chosen alternative or undermining  the attractiveness of the unchosen  alternative, or by minimizing the differences between or among the alternatives. Another important  role that advertising can play is in helping to reduce post decisional dissonance. Advertising can help to reduce the feeling of discomfort that follows a major purchase  by changing beliefs (e.g., ‘‘The new MP3 player has state-of-the-art technology’’) or by adding new beliefs (e.g., ‘‘The new MP3 player will make you the envy of your friends’’) that enable buyers to feel good about their recent major purchases.

5.2.  Functions of Attitudes

Why   do   people   have   attitudes?   Consider,   for   a moment,  what  life would  be  like  without  attitudes. For example, Tracy might sit down to dinner one day to find a plate of lima beans. She might eat the beans and  discover  that  they  taste  horrible.  The  following week,  Tracy  is  once  again  served  lima  beans  and remembers  them  from the  last time,  but  she has no attitude  toward  them.  She eats them  again and finds out,  once  again,  that  they  taste  quite  horrible.  For someone  without  attitudes,  the  discovery  that  lima beans are horrible  could  occur  hundreds  of separate times over a lifetime. At a most basic level, attitudes help people to navigate their world; they help them to know how  to  respond  to  things.  Attitudes  allow people  to approach rewards and avoid punishments.  Beyond this basic  ‘‘object  appraisal’’  function,  attitudes  have  long been thought to serve a number of important functions. More than  40 years ago, Daniel Katz described  four functions  of attitudes:  ego-defensive, value-expressive, knowledge, and utilitarian.  Some attitudes  have an ego defensive function in that they help protect people from unflattering truths about themselves. People may bolster their own egos by holding negative attitudes about other groups (e.g., Hispanics, homosexuals). The value-expressive  function  occurs  when  attitudes  allow  people  to express important values about themselves. For example, people may express a positive attitude toward recycling, suggesting that environmentalism  is an important  value. The knowledge  function  of attitudes  allows people  to better understand  the world around them. For example, if a person dislikes politicians,  it is easy to understand why politicians always seem to be giving themselves pay raises when the economy is particularly  weak. Finally, attitudes may have a utilitarian function. Tracy’s attitude toward   lima  beans  helps  her  to  know  whether   to approach  them  (because  they  are  delicious)  or  avoid them (because they taste horrible).  As suggested by all of these functions, attitudes  also help to guide people’s behavior.

5.3.  Attitude–Behavior Relations

Indeed, the study of attitudes was at least partly initiated because  attitudes  seemed to be a logical predictor  of behavior. As noted earlier in the research paper, behavior is an important form of attitudinal expression. For example, if Tara has a positive attitude  toward a brand of pants, it follows that she will buy the pants; she will behave in a way that  is consistent  with  her  attitudes.  Advertisers aim to create  positive attitudes  toward  objects in the hope that consumers will purchase those objects. Unfortunately,  the study of attitude–behavior  relations has not been quite so simple. The following is only a very brief review of attitude–behavior  relations.

A 1969 review of the literature  on attitude–behavior relations   found   that   attitudes   and   behaviors   were modestly correlated with one another at best. This lack of attitude–behavior  correspondence  caused some researchers to suggest abandoning  the attitude  concept altogether.  Fortunately,  others rejected this suggestion and worked to better understand attitude–behavior relations.  It is now known  that  attitudes  reliably predict behavior under certain conditions. Attitudes and behaviors correlate  when the  attitude  measures  and  behaviors correspond  with regard to their level of specificity. If one wants to reliably predict  a specific action,  one should  assess attitudes  toward performing  that action, with regard to a particular target, in a given context, and at a specific time. Or, one could enhance attitude– behavior  correspondence  by broadening  the  scope of the  behaviors.  Knowing someone’s attitude  toward  a particular attitude object (e.g., religion) is not necessarily going to predict whether that person attends church on  a  given  Sunday,  but  it  should  reliably  predict  a variety of religious behaviors  over the  course  of time (e.g., attending religious services over a period of weeks, having a religious text at home,  wearing a symbol of religious faith).

Another way in which to enhance the attitude–behavior relationship  is to provide people with direct experience with  attitude  objects.  Indirect  learning  is not  as powerful as direct learning, so an advertisement showing people enjoying a frosty beverage is not as persuasive as having people enjoy the frosty beverage in person. Behavioral prediction  is enhanced  when one also considers the influences of social norms and perceived control on behavior. Finally, attitudes are more predictive of behavior when attitudes are strong or readily accessible.

Attitude strength has been defined and measured in a variety of ways, but it is generally accepted that strong attitudes  are resistant  to change, persistent  over time, and predictive of behavior. Clearly, these are the types of attitudes  that  advertisers  want to inculcate.  But given that there are multiple  definitions of attitude  strength, what is the best way in which to identify and produce strong attitudes? In considering various measures of attitude strength, it may be helpful to think in terms of whether the measures are operative or meta-attitudinal. An operative  measure  of attitude  strength  is one that reflects the operation  of the attitude  (e.g., the accessibility of the attitude can be measured by the speed with which   people   can  provide   evaluations   of  objects), whereas a meta-attitudinal  measure of attitude strength is one that requires people to provide a subjective self report of their own attitudes (e.g., the confidence with which an attitude  is held cannot be directly measured but rather must be reported by an individual). One way in which attitudes can be strengthened  is through  cognitive elaboration.  To the extent that people intentionally and carefully think  about, and elaborate on, their attitudes, they are engaged in cognitive elaboration.

6. Persuasion

The   study   of   attitude   change   has   existed   since Aristotle’s time. However, empirical  research  on persuasion  and  attitude  change  is a much  more  recent phenomenon.  It was not  until  the  mid-20th  century that the study of attitude change developed into a thoroughly systematic process.

6.1.  Message Learning Approach

Carl Hovland and colleagues, working at Yale University during  the 1950s, sought  to study persuasion  by considering  the question,  ‘‘Who says what to whom  with what effect?’’  That is, they were interested  in studying the effects of different variables in the persuasion process.

‘‘Who’’ refers to the source of the persuasive communication, ‘‘what’’ refers to the message that is presented, and ‘‘to whom’’ refers to characteristics of the message recipient. This approach  to the study of persuasion  was an information-processing, or message-learning, paradigm. According to the message-learning paradigm, persuasive communications  could have an effect only to the extent that they commanded  attention  and were comprehensible. Furthermore,  message recipients had to yield to the persuasive communications  and retain  the information presented  in  the  persuasive  communications.   If these conditions  were  met,  beliefs, attitudes,  and  behaviors were liable to change. The following considers some of the critical variables studied by the Yale group.

Holding message, recipient, and channel characteristics constant,  how do different characteristics  of the source influence persuasion? Hovland and colleagues found that communicator  credibility  had  an effect on  persuasion, such  that  credible  sources  were more  persuasive  than noncredible   sources.  But  what  exactly  is  a  credible source? Hovland and colleagues examined three characteristics  of credible  sources:  expertise,  trustworthiness, and  the  source’s intent  to persuade.  An expert  source (e.g., a Nobel prize-winning scientist) is more persuasive than  a nonexpert  source  (e.g.,  the  director  of a local YMCA). A trustworthy  source  (e.g., a news anchor)  is more  persuasive than  a nontrustworthy source  (e.g., a member of the Liars Club).  A source that is known  to have a persuasive intent (e.g., an advertisement)  is often less persuasive than one delivering the same message but with no persuasive intent  (e.g., a friend).  Forewarning people of a communicator’s  persuasive intent  seems to instigate mental counter arguing in the audience. It is also known  that  physically  attractive  sources  are  generally more persuasive than unattractive  ones and that similar communicators are usually more persuasive than dissimilar ones. Finally, powerful communicators (i.e., communicators who can administer punishments  or rewards to the message recipients) tend to be more persuasive than powerless communicators.

Holding source, recipient, and channel characteristics constant, how do different characteristics of the message influence persuasion? The comprehensibility of a message is (obviously) an important determinant  of persuasion; if people cannot understand  the message, it is unlikely that they will be persuaded by it. The number of arguments in a persuasive communication also matters; more arguments are generally better than fewer arguments. Of course, there is a limit to the number  of arguments  one can present before message recipients become annoyed and lose interest. Presenting a few strong convincing arguments is better than presenting dozens of weak specious arguments. Messages that arouse fear (e.g., ‘‘If you do not brush your teeth, you will end up ugly, toothless, and diseased’’)  can also be persuasive if certain  conditions are met. An effective fear appeal must (a) convince the recipients that dire consequences are possible, (b) convince  the  recipients  that  the  dire  consequences  will occur if instructions  are not followed, and (c) provide strong assurance that the recommended course of action will prevent the dire consequences. One and two-sided messages are differentially persuasive for different audiences; two-sided messages are generally more effective among knowledgeable audiences, whereas one-sided messages are more effective among less knowledgeable audiences. Two-sided messages can be more effective in general so long as the opposing arguments are effectively countered in the message.

Recipient characteristics  also influence  the  efficacy of  persuasive  communications.   An  audience  that  is highly  motivated  and  able to  process  information  is more apt to be persuaded (provided that strong, rather than weak, arguments  are presented)  than is an audience that is distracted or apathetic. People who are of lower intelligence are generally easier to persuade than are people of high intelligence, people with moderate levels of self-esteem are generally easier to persuade than  are people  with  either  low or high  self-esteem, and younger people are more susceptible to persuasive communications  than are older people. Some personality traits also have important implications for persuasion. Self-monitoring is a characteristic  that  varies in the population. High self-monitors are particularly sensitive to situational  cues and adjust their behavior accordingly,  whereas  low  self-monitors  are  guided more  by internal  cues  and  tend  to  behave  similarly across various situations. High self-monitors tend to be susceptible to persuasive communications that have image-based  appeals,  whereas  low self-monitors  tend to be more susceptible to value or quality-based appeals.

6.2.  Dual-Process Theories

The message-learning approach to persuasion obtained a great deal of information about the influence of different variables on persuasion. However, there were also a lot of apparently  contradictory  findings. One study might report that attractive sources had a large impact on persuasion,  whereas  another  study  would  report  no impact at all. During the late 1970s, a pair of integrative frameworks for understanding  persuasion emerged. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Heuristic– Systematic Model (HSM) are both dual-process models of persuasion,  emphasizing that different variables can have different effects on persuasion.  These models are fairly similar to one another and can be used to explain similar findings and make similar predictions,  but the language used in describing the two models is different. The focus here is on the ELM because it has spurred the most research in advertising and marketing.

The ELM is based on the proposition  that there is a continuum  of elaboration likelihood. At one end of the continuum, the amount of cognitive effort that is used to scrutinize persuasive communications is negligible; information processing at this end of the continuum  is minimal. This is known as the peripheral route to persuasion. At the other end of the continuum, there is a great deal of cognitive elaboration; people are highly motivated to carefully process information pertaining to the persuasive communications.  This is known as the central route to persuasion.  One might say that there are two routes to persuasion: central and peripheral. Which route is taken is dependent on message recipients’ motivation and ability to process information. According to the ELM, people who are both motivated and able to process persuasive communications  will take the central route, whereas people who are lacking either  motivation  or ability to process information will take the central route.

The central and peripheral  routes are metaphors  for the  amount  of cognitive elaboration  in  which  people engage when they are faced with persuasive communications. Central route processing is particularly  likely to occur when the persuasive communications  are personally relevant to the recipient.  If an individual is in the market  for  a  new  automobile,  automobile  advertisements would likely be personally relevant and, therefore, more highly scrutinized.  If a person  happens  to be a home theater enthusiast, he or she would be more motivated  to  attend  to  advertisements  for  televisions and stereo speakers. Of course, all of the motivation in the world cannot cause greater cognitive elaboration if the message recipients  do not also have the ability to process the information carefully. Distractions and other forms  of cognitive  business  would  prevent  cognitive elaboration.

Persuasion through the central route occurs when the arguments presented are strong and compelling, and attitudes formed through the central route are persistent over time and resistant  to change. Persuasion through the peripheral  route occurs when there are compelling peripheral cues present (e.g., a long list of arguments, an attractive  speaker,  a  credible  source),  and  attitudes formed through  the peripheral  route  are more temporary and subject to further change. The ELM and HSM can account for a wide variety of persuasion phenomena and have proven to be very robust and useful theories.

The psychology of advertising has come a long way. We now have a greater understanding  than ever before of psychological processes crucial to advertising. From attracting  attention  to understanding  how people are persuaded,  the advancement  of psychological science and  that  of advertising  practice  have much  to  learn from one another.  This research paper has but  scratched  the surface of advertising  psychology.  New theories  and applications are emerging at a rate that is unparalleled in the history of either advertising or psychology.

References:

  1. Eagly,   H.,  &  Chaiken,   S.  (1993).   The  psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Heider, F. (1958).  The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: John Wiley.
  2. O’Guinn, T. C., Allen, C. T., & Semenik, R. J. (2003). Advertising and integrated brand promotion. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
  3. Packard, V. (1957). The hidden persuaders. New York: D. McKay. Petty, E.,  &  Wegener,  D.  T.  (1998).  Attitude  change: Multiple roles for persuasion variables. In D. T. Gilbert, S.
  4. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 323–390). New York: McGraw–Hill.
  5. Scott, L. M., & Rajeev, B. (Eds.). (2003). Persuasive imagery: A consumer response perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  6. Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35, 151–175.

See also:

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