Consumer persuasion: Indirect change and implicit balance

Abstract

The present research examines two main issues relevant to consumer persuasion: (1) whether automatic evaluations can change (both directly and indirectly) in response to verbal ads that engage deliberative information processing activity, and (2) whether such messages can result in spreading activation of implicit change that is consistent with balance principles. The first study showed that automatic evaluations of vegetables were more favorable after people read a health ad than a control message. The results of Study 2 showed that automatic associations toward Heineken (a brand associated with the color green) were also more favorable as a result of processing a message advocating the color green than a neutral control message. Consistent with the idea that automatic changes can be consequential not only for brands but also for consumer identity, participants of Study 3 showed more automatic self-vegetable associations after thinking about the benefits (rather than the negative consequences) of consuming vegetables. A final study revealed that false feedback increasing (vs. decreasing) self-product identity led to more favorable automatic attitudes toward the product, but only for those with relatively high scores on the implicit measure of selfesteem. Taken together, this series of studies suggests that automatic changes that result from consumer persuasion are consequential in terms of spreading activation and that they seem to respond to balance principles.

Reaching for the (Product) Stars: Measuring Recognition and Approach Speed to Get Insights Into Consumer Choice

“…In addition, we examined the correlations of recognition and approach movement times with an IAT (Greenwald et al, 1998). The IAT has been previously applied in consumer research to assess implicit consumer attitudes and consumer brand relations (e.g., Brunel, Tietje, & Greenwald, 2004;Dimofte & Johansson, 2009;Dimofte & Yalch, 2007;Horcajo, Briñ ol, & Petty, 2010;Maison, Greenwald, & Bruin, 2004) and has been repeatedly shown to predict spontaneous or affect-driven consumer behavior (for reviews, see Dimofte, 2010;Friese et al, 2009;Greenwald, Poehlman, Uhlmann, & Banji, 2009). Hence, we expected at least moderate correlations of the RaBAT approach movement times with the IAT score (cf.…”

La advertencia del intento persuasivo en contextos publicitarios

“…Esta intención persuasiva manifiesta de la publicidad contribuye a que el público, en general, desarrolle actitudes que van desde ambivalentes hasta negativas hacia la propia publicidad (e.g., considerarla como algo falso y engañoso, Calfee y Ringold, 1994). De hecho, muchas técnicas de publicidad actuales se orientan precisamente a disimular la presencia de un intento persuasivo, por ejemplo, colocando los productos dentro de escenas de películas (product placement), o utilizando formatos para el anuncio que imitan al formato empleado en documentales e informativos (publirreportajes) (e.g., Horcajo, Briñol, y Petty, 2010;Jiménez-Morales, 2005;Rucker y Tormala, 2012).…”

Consider the Source: Persuasion of Implicit Evaluations is Moderated by Source Credibility

“…In particular, implicit evaluations have been successfully formed by presenting participants with positive or negative information about novel stimuli (e.g., De Houwer, 2006;Gregg, Seibt, & Banaji, 2006;Ratliff & Nosek, 2010;Rydell, McConnell, Mackie, & Strain, 2006;Whitfield & Jordan, 2009) Source credibility 5 and existing implicit evaluations of vegetables have been changed by having participants read a written argument about the positive aspects of consuming vegetables (Horcajo, Briñol, & Petty, 2010). In addition to manipulating the valence (i.e., one stimulus is "good" while another stimulus is "bad" or "neutral"), the type of persuasive message may matter, as suggested by the observation that implicit smoking evaluations of current smokers are more negative following an affectively laden anti-smoking argument than following a cognitive anti-smoking argument (Smith & De Houwer, under review).…”