How Sweetness Plays Sweetly in Persuasion

Three experiments explored how sweetness metaphors affect individuals’ attitudes. The results indicated that sweetness metaphors led to positive responses to the target advertisement and the advertised product, both when the sweetness was actually experienced (Experiment 1) and when the sweetness experience was imagined (Experiment 2 and 3). In Experiment 1, participants who directly experienced a sweet taste evaluated a mineral water advertisement more positively than those who did not experience a sweet taste. Experiment 2 showed that an imagined sweet taste generated favorable attitudes toward the same targets as in Experiment 1. Results of Experiment 3, which used advertisements of various product categories, were similar to those of the previous two experiments, where both direct experience and mental imagination of sweetness were advantageous for forming favorable attitudes.     

Cross-Cultural Sexism and the Effectiveness of Gender (Non)Traditional Advertising: A Comparison of Purchase Intentions in Poland,South Africa,and the United Kingdom

Findings regarding the effectiveness of (non)traditionally gendered advertisements are mixed and largely emanate from the United States. We tested the stereotype content model and ambivalent sexism theory cross-nationally in an advertising context and predicted that paternalistic (vs. envious) female stereotypes will trigger higher purchase intent (PI) irrespective of country (Hypothesis 1), viewers’ benevolent sexism will positively predict PI for paternalistic housewife advertisements (Hypothesis 2a), viewers’ hostile sexism will negatively predict PI for envious businesswoman advertisements (Hypothesis 2b), and these relationships with sexism will be confined to less gender egalitarian countries (i.e., Poland and South Africa) (Hypothesis 3). Statistical analyses of data from 468 Polish, South African, and British university students supported Hypothesis 1 and partially supported Hypotheses 2 and 3. The predicted patterns held for South Africa, but in Poland, viewers’ benevolence positively predicted PI for both advertisement types, with the exception of highly hostile women. British viewers’ hostility positively predicted PI for the housewife advertisement. Our findings support the cross-cultural applicability of the stereotype content model to advertising and suggest that the predictive role of sexism changes depending on its type, advertisement type, country, and gender. We recommend that advertisers should adopt a nuanced approach in predicting the effectiveness of gendered advertisements.     

Memory for television advertisements as a function of advertisement–programme congruity

An experiment tested memory for a beer advertisement (placed either at the beginning or the end of the centre advertisement break) within four programme contexts featuring beer drinking either before and after, before or after the centre break, or not at all. The relationship between subjective audience evaluation of the programme and memory for advertisements was also investigated. The sample consisted of students (N = 79) aged 17 to 26 years. Brand recognition of the beer advertisement was significantly related to programme content, showing memory for the advertisement being enhanced when relevant programme material followed the break. Congruent material shown before the centre break had the reverse effect of impairing memory for the advertisement. Increased levels of programme involvement were found to be associated with improved recall and recognition of embedded advertisements but higher rated ‘happiness’ of the programme was associated with poorer memory for advertisement content. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of evidence type and product involvement on message‐framing effects in advertising

• Extrapolating from prior research that describes the persuasive effects of gain‐ versus loss‐framed messages via the heuristic‐systematic model (HSM), the current study incorporated two advertising‐related factors – evidence type (informational vs. exemplar) and product involvement – and examined their influence on message‐framing effects in advertisements for commonplace consumer products. A significant interaction in Experiment 1 indicated that loss‐framed messages were persuasive in a higher‐involvement context only when coupled with informational evidence, which enhanced systematic processing among participants and thereby elicited the framing effect. No interaction effects occurred in the lower‐involvement context of Experiment 2, in which the hypothesized thought‐processing patterns did not evince. Consistent with recent theoretical advancements, these results indicate that message‐framing effects can be attenuated when both systematic and heuristic processing occur simultaneously. Practical implications are discussed.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Face-name mediated learning and long-term retention: the role of images and imagery processes

Subjects were presented with videotapes wherein 24 students introduced themselves for 20 s while the subjects were given image mediators as learning aids. After initial recall and before recall after 1 week (Experiment 1) or 3 weeks (Experiment 2), subjects rated whether they thought they did (session 1) or would (session 2) remember each name and rated the clarity of the mental images of the faces, with the names used as cues. The image clarity of faces was significantly related to long-term retention of names, the clarity of images decreased with time, and the process of making ratings and reconstructing mental images of faces and face-name connections greatly facilitated long-term retention of names. The results are discussed in the context of a multiphase processing model.     

Racial Tolerance and Reactions to Diversity Information in Job Advertisements1

The present paper reports the results from two investigations that examined the degree to which racial tolerance influences Caucasians' attraction to organizations. In Study 1, 280 Caucasian job seekers rated the extent to which various organizational features would influence their interest in an organization. Findings suggested that (a) racial tolerance was related to the importance placed on organizational diversity, but not other factors (e.g., pay), and (b) that racial tolerance predicted the importance placed on organizational diversity above and beyond other relevant individual differences. Study 2 extended Study 1 by examining whether the diversity values expressed in job advertisements affect Caucasians' perceptions of organizational image and subsequent job pursuit intentions. The results of Study 2 indicated that racial tolerance was significantly related to organizational perceptions and pursuit intentions when strong diversity values were communicated in a job advertisement.     

Field dependence and attitude change: Source credibility can alter persuasion by affecting message-relevant thinking

The present study shows that for a personally relevant counterattitudinal issue, a highly credible source can alter persuasibility by increasing a subject's message-relevant thinking. Previous failures to show this effect were probably due to the highly thoughtful nature of typical research subjects, when confronted with involving issues. In the present study, field-dependent and field-independent subjects heard convincing or refutable counterattitudinal speeches given by sources of high or low credibility. Results indicated that subjects who are typically low in differentiation of stimuli (field-dependent subjects) showed differential persuasion to strong and weak arguments only when they were presented by a highly credible source. For subjects who are typically high in propensity to differentiate stimuli (field-independent subjects), the arguments were differentially persuasive for both high and low credible sources. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that increasing source credibility can enhance message-relevant thought for subjects who typically do not scrutinize message content.     

False physiological feedback and persuasion: Effect of fear arousal vs. fear reduction on attitude change

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that increases in false physiological feedback of fear arousal will enhance persuasion and that reduction in the arousal feedback is unnecessary for increased persuasion to occur. Prior research has usually found a positive relation between level of arousal and persuasion, but support for the drive reduction hypothesis is tenuous. However, Harris and Jellison (1971) claimed support for such a hypothesis. They manipulated subjects' fear arousal cognitively via false physiological feedback while the subjects listened to a persuasive communication. The present experiments used a similar procedure in an attempt to test an "arousal only" against an "arousal reduction" hypothesis. Subjects listened to a persuasive speech while receiving false feedback via a meter concerning their fear arousal. In Experiment I half of the subjects received high arousal and half received moderate arousal information. Within each of these conditions half of the subjects had their arousal reduced, and the other half did not. In Experiment II subjects received either low arousal, high arousal, or high then low arousal feedback while listening. The results of the two studies generally provided support for the "arousal only" hypothesis. An interpretation in terms of Bem's attribution theory was tentatively suggested.     

Reading and visual memory: remembering scenes that were never seen.

In Experiment 1 (N = 16), under conditions of high memory load (60 pictures and 50 paragraphs) and a 1-week retention interval, undergraduate subjects reported their memory for photographs of scenes (cued recall and free-recall tasks). Subjects frequently reported memory for photographs that they had actually never seen, but had read about in a brief paragraph. In Experiment 2 (N = 40), the same pattern of results was obtained with immediate testing. Experiment 2 also demonstrated that the likelihood of subjects falsely attributing scene memory (based on reading) to actually having viewed a photograph was reduced when metacognitive awareness of imaging during reading was made salient. Awareness of image creation was induced by requiring subjects to rate the paragraphs with respect to imagery vividness. Although other measures of memory remained the same, subjects in the induced-imagery condition made 50% fewer confusion errors than subjects who read the paragraphs without imagery instructions. The results are discussed in the context of Johnson and Raye's (1981) reality monitoring model.     

Retrieval opportunities while multitasking improve name recall

In two experiments we tested whether providing retrieval opportunities while people were multitasking would improve memory for names. College students (n=195) in Experiment 1 did addition problems and intermittently were "introduced" to 12 face-name pairs to learn. For half the names students were given three within-list retrieval opportunities. Name recall (cued with the faces) was tested either immediately or after 24 hours. Retrieval opportunities improved name recall with both immediate and delayed tests. Experiment 2 more closely resembled the multitasking required in a real-life social situation. College students (n=98) viewed a videotape and were asked to learn the names of 12 dormitory residents who were introduced during an ongoing conversation. Retrieval opportunities were provided for 8 of the 12 residents by having them appear three additional times in the video without repeating their names. Retrieval opportunities improved name recall, but the effect was much smaller than in Experiment 1. The present research demonstrates that distributed retrieval can be effective when people are multitasking including when the multitasking involves a conversation.     

Factors affecting the measurement of classically conditioned fear in rats following exposure to escapable versus inescapable signaled shock.

Three experiments are reported in which rats first received 50 escapable or inescapable signaled-shock trials. Experiment 1 (n = 22) employed an acquired-drive paradigm and found inescapable shock subjects learned a hurdle-jump response to escape the signal less rapidly than did escapable-shock subjects. Experiment 2 (n = 24) employed a conditioned emotional response paradigm and found inescapable-shock subjects suppressed more when the signal was introduced in the appetitive bar-pressing task. Both experiments measured spontaneous activity immediately following conditioning and found no group differences. Experiment 3 (n = 39) employed the same activity task and found no difference between escapable- and inescapable-shock groups when the signal was introduced into the activity task. Both groups displayed less activity than a nonshock control group during the signal. The results suggest that lack of control over the shock in the conditioning phase did not result in an increase of conditioned fear. The results are discussed in terms of a learned active-inactive predisposition to respond.     

Mindless resistance to persuasion: Low self‐control fosters the use of resistance‐promoting heuristics

In our consumer society, people are confronted on a daily basis with unsolicited persuasion attempts. The present research challenges the prevailing view that resisting persuasion is more likely to fail when consumers have low self‐control. Four experiments tested the hypothesis that impaired self‐regulation may actually facilitate resistance to persuasion when the influence context contains resistance‐promoting heuristics. Indeed, participants with low self‐control were less likely to comply with a persuasive request (Experiments 1 and 3), reported a less favourable attitude towards an advertised product (Experiment 2), and generated more negative responses towards a persuasive message (Experiment 4) than participants with high self‐control, when they could rely on resistance‐promoting heuristics: a violation of the norm of reciprocity (Experiments 1 and 3), an advertisement disclaimer (Experiment 2), or negative social proof (Experiment 4). Together, these studies demonstrate that contextual cues can bolster resistance when one does not carefully scrutinize an influence attempt.     

公司形象和产品属性超越的协同效应：基于刻板印象内容模型

由于消费者和品牌之间的关系与人际关系存在许多相似之处, 反映人际感知的刻板印象内容模型为品牌感知研究提供了全新的视角。然而, 以往研究多关注品牌感知两大维度--“感知能力”和“感知温情”二者之间的作用关系, 鲜有研究同时基于公司层面和产品层面考察品牌感知不同维度的前因变量及其交互作用机理。鉴于此, 本文实验1考察了公司形象/产品属性超越的不同维度与“感知能力”和“感知温情”的对应关系, 在此基础上进一步发现公司形象和产品属性超越对购买意愿的协同效应。具体而言, 当公司形象为能力型时, 产品享乐性(相对于功能性)属性超越下消费者的购买意愿更高; 当公司形象为诚信型时, 产品功能性(相对于享乐性)属性超越下消费者的购买意愿更高。而且, 品牌赞赏感在上述协同效应中发挥中介作用。实验2探究感知风险调节公司形象和产品属性超越对购买意愿的协同影响。文章最后讨论了本文的理论贡献, 对企业如何实现公司形象策略和产品属性策略的协同促进等方面的营销启示, 以及未来研究方向。     

Differential cerebral involvement in perceiving Chinese characters: levels of processing approach

Three experiments were designed to determine the accuracy and latency with which right-handed Chinese university students (12 females and 12 males) recognized Chinese characters in the left and right visual half-fields (VHFs). The experiments varied in the "depth" of processing required. Experiment 1 was a lexical decision task in which the configuration of the stimulus (a real Chinese character or the mirror image of a real character) determined whether the grapheme was an actual character. Experiment 2 required phonological processing; i.e., subjects had to decide whether a character (or a foil) matched the sound of an orally presented Chinese character. Experiment 3 required semantic processing; i.e., subjects had to decide if a character (or a foil) belonged to a particular semantic category. In each experiment, single characters were presented unilaterally for 150 msec. There was a significant right VHF superiority for accuracy scores for Experiments 2 and 3 but not for Experiment 1. None of the experiments yielded significant visual asymmetries in reaction time. The results do not support previous claims of orthography-specific laterality, but instead show that laterality effects for morphemic stimuli vary with the orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing demands of the task.     

The importance of the keyword-generation method in keyword mnemonics

Keyword mnemonics is under certain conditions an effective approach for learning foreign-language vocabulary. It appears to be effective for words with high image vividness but not for words with low image vividness. In this study, two experiments were performed to assess the efficacy of a new keyword-generation procedure (peer generation). In Experiment 1, a sample of 363 high-school students was randomly into four groups. The subjects were required to learn L1 equivalents of a list of 16 Latin words (8 with high image vividness, 8 with low image vividness), using a) the rote method, or the keyword method with b) keywords and images generated and supplied by the experimenter, c) keywords and images generated by themselves, or d) keywords and images previously generated by peers (i.e., subjects with similar sociodemographic characteristics). Recall was tested immediately and one week later. For high-vivideness words, recall was significantly better in the keyword groups than the rote method group. For low-vividness words, learning method had no significant effect. Experiment 2 was basically identical, except that the word lists comprised 32 words (16 high-vividness, 16 low-vividness). In this experiment, the peer-generated-keyword group showed significantly better recall of high-vividness words than the rote method groups and the subject generated keyword group; again, however, learning method had no significant effect on recall of low-vividness words.     

Long-term working memory in text production

In reading and other high-level cognitive tasks, Ericsson and Kintsch (1995) proposed that the limited capacity of short-term working memory (STWM) is supplemented by long- term working memory (LTWM) for individuals with a high degree of domain-specific knowledge. In Experiment 1, college students (N = 80) wrote persuasive and narrative texts concerning baseball; domain-specific knowledge about baseball and verbal ability was assessed. The results showed that verbal ability and domain-specific knowledge independently affected writing skill, supporting the view that literacy depends on both knowledge sources and refuting one argument raised in support of the LTWM hypothesis. Experiment 2 (N = 42) replicated this outcome and tested the prediction that a high degree of domain-specific knowledge would lessen interference on a secondary task. The data supported the interference prediction, offering evidence that LTWM plays a role in the production of text.     

Human nonverbal counting estimated by response production and verbal report

In three experiments, people were shown sequential displays and were prevented from verbal counting by being required to perform other cognitive tasks. In Experiment 1, the subjects were shown three 1.target (target5 = 8, 16, or 32) sequences of colored geometric shapes. On occasional question trials, the subjects were asked to estimate the target number after the final item in the sequence. On other test trials, items continued to appear beyond the target, and the subjects estimated the target manually by tapping a space bar. In Experiments 2 and 3, a matching-to-sample procedure required the subjects to estimate the same sequence of items (target = 8, 11, 14, 17, or 20) both verbally and manually. The results indicated that (1) manual and verbal estimates closely approximated target size in Experiments 1 and 2, (2) coefficients of variation were constant across target size, and (3) correlations between manual and verbal estimates were positive in Experiments 2 and 3. Requiring the subjects to perform a counting task during presentation of items led to underestimation of number in Experiment 3. nt]mis|This research was funded by a research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to W.A.R. and by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship to M.J.B.     

Differences in readers' response towards advertising versus publicity

Publicity is assumed to have higher credibility than advertising prompting communication specialists to call for its use alongside traditional advertising to achieve overall communication goals. To test the differences in readers' response towards advertisements and publicity, a sample of students (N= 104; 52 men and 52 women) were shown printed messages identified as advertising or publicity. The publicity format appeared to be associated with deeper processing because participants had higher recall, more message-relevant thoughts, and better discrimination for the publicity message. In addition, participants rated the publicity message higher on Source Credibility, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent than a comparable advertisement.     

The Word Association Implications Test

Three experiments (N = 144 college students) tested and documented the relationship between incidental learning of diagnostic schemata with performance on the Word Association Implications Test (WAIT). Moreover, Experiment 1 showed that instruction in diagnostic cues did not improve WAIT scores, although an incentive did. Experiment 2 supported the "developing schemata" concept by showing that subjects need to interpret WAIT protocols before they can generate possible diagnostic clues. Experiment 3 showed that inductive reasoning and viewing the task as more play- and game-like (vs. work- and test-like) predicted WAIT scores over and above the influence of incidental learning of schemata, in sum, results suggest that an heuristic discovery-oriented approach is most successful in learning "to read between the lines" of word associations. Discussion addresses the value of heuristic versus algorithmic approaches to the learning of personality assessment.     

The Word Association Implications Test

Three experiments (N = 144 college students) tested and documented the relationship between incidental learning of diagnostic schemata with performance on the Word Association Implications Test (WAIT). Moreover, Experiment 1 showed that instruction in diagnostic cues did not improve WAIT scores, although an incentive did. Experiment 2 supported the "developing schemata" concept by showing that subjects need to interpret WAIT protocols before they can generate possible diagnostic clues. Experiment 3 showed that inductive reasoning and viewing the task as more play- and game-like (vs. work- and test-like) predicted WAIT scores over and above the influence of incidental learning of schemata, in sum, results suggest that an heuristic discovery-oriented approach is most successful in learning "to read between the lines" of word associations. Discussion addresses the value of heuristic versus algorithmic approaches to the learning of personality assessment.