Construal-level mind-sets and the perceived validity of marketing claims

Attributes Versus Benefits: The Role of Construal Levels and Appeal Type on the Persuasiveness of Marketing Messages

“…In doing so, this inquiry offers a new theoretical perspective explaining conflicting evidence on the relative persuasiveness of these appeal types. Finally, this study contributes to a relatively small body of work on the fit between construal level and appeal type (White, MacDonnell, and Dahl 2011;Lee, Keller, and Sternthal 2010;Wright et al 2012). We provide additional evidence demonstrating that the fit between construal level and appeal type enhances persuasion.…”

“…Matching psychological distances enhances persuasion (Wright et al 2012) and confers value from fit (Higgins 2000). In fact, previous studies have found that a match between construal level and regulatory focus (Lee, Keller, and Sternthal 2010) and between construal level and message frame (White, MacDonnell, and Dahl 2011) increases persuasion.…”

“…The thoughts were structured through a diagram that required participants to think either more abstractly about the activity (high construal) or more concretely (low construal) about the activity (for details please see Freitas, Gollwitzer, and Trope 2004). Prior research demonstrates the effectiveness of this task in manipulating construal levels (Agrawal and Wan 2009;Wright et al 2012). In the second task, participants were asked to examine two product descriptions and to judge the products described.…”

“…Thus, the explanation advanced for similar matching effects is that the parallelism between appeal type and processing style enhances processing fluency (White, MacDonnell, and Dahl 2011;Lee, Keller, and Sternthal 2010;Wright et al 2012), the metacognitive experience of ease or difficulty associated with cognitive processing (Alter and Oppenheimer 2007). We therefore posit that the persuasive advantage of matching construal levels with appeal type can occur only under conditions when fluent processing of the appeal is permitted and uninhibited.…”

The moderating role of construal level on the evaluation of emotional appeal vs. cognitive appeal advertisements

“…In the low-level construal condition, participants' attention was drawn to the technique of pointillism (local-focused), whereas in the high-level construal condition, participants' attention was drawn to the desired effects of the painting (global-focused). Using different materials, attention to the global (vs. local) object has been found to induce high-level (vs. low-level) construal (Förster et al 2008;Liberman and Förster 2009;Wright et al 2012).…”