Implicit vs explicit expression on advertising in a cross-cultural study: the mediating role of processing fluency and number of alternatives

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to examine the moderating effect of culture on the phrase expression type that affects product attitude. Moreover, to identify the mechanism by which these effects occur, the authors investigated the mediating role of processing fluency, and examined how such a mediating effect of processing fluency varies with number of alternatives.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments were conducted to verify the hypotheses presented in this study. Experiment 1 tested the effects of phrase expression type and culture on product attitude; a two-factor design (phrase expression type: explicit expression vs implicit expression) was applied, and culture was classified according to nationality. Experiment 2 tested the mediating effect of processing fluency on product attitude, using the same approach as Experiment 1. Experiment 3 tested the moderated mediating role of the number of alternatives, a between-group experimental design of 2 (phrase expression: explicit expression vs implicit expression) × 2 (number of alternatives: many vs few) was applied.FindingsExperiment 1's results demonstrate that product attitude is more favorable when implicit expressions are used for Asians, whereas it is more favorable with explicit expressions for Westerners. Experiment 2 verifies that the interaction effect between phrase expression type and culture on product attitude is mediated by processing fluency. Experiment 3's results demonstrate that the number of alternatives moderates the mediating role of processing fluency for Westerners, but has no effect on the processing fluency for Asians.Originality/valueThis study provides novel insights and expands the field of study of phrase expression types by separating the ambiguous boundaries among phrase presentation types. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidelines for establishing effective advertising strategies for companies by suggesting suitable phrase expression types based on culture.

Culture and Explicitness of Persuasion: Linguistic Evidence From a 51-Year Corpus-Based Cross-Cultural Comparison of the United Nations General Debate Speeches Across 55 Countries (1970-2020)

“…In this sense, it can not only be interpreted with the already found differences between Eastern and Western cultural samples but also offer implications for future behavioral research in cross-cultural comparisons. The explicitness of persuasion has been investigated in advertising (Yoon & Kim, 2021), but that in diplomatic or political discourse has remained understudied, while it can provide insights into the cultural styles of political persuasion.…”

“…The existing empirical studies have produced fruitful results in revealing the tendency for implicitness of persuasion among the cultures from the East, including both synchronic (Parham et al, 2015) and diachronic research. A number of studies have shown that the countries from the East tend to prefer more implicit argumentation, expression, or persuasion (Cheng, 2004; Kim et al, 1998; Yoon & Kim, 2021). The results have been interpreted from a diverse range of theoretical perspectives, including context dependence (Hall, 1959) and collectivism/individualism (G. H. Hofstede, 1991).…”

“…Fewer cross-cultural studies, however, have been conducted on the textual characteristics of diverse cultures as they are presented in national discourses. The advertising (Terlutter et al, 2010; Yoon & Kim, 2021) and academic (Suomela-Salmi & Dervin, 2009) discourses have received a certain amount of attention in terms of the cross-cultural difference on explicitness of expression, but many other types of discourse are still left understudied. This study selects the international diplomatic discourse as the subject to investigate the national-level cross-cultural differences in explicitness of expression with quantitative register analytical methods derived from linguistics.…”

“…There are subtle differences between the concepts, but a general parallel can be drawn among them. Despite acknowledging the individual differences within cultures, a number of empirical studies have reported a general tendency of the cultures from the East to display more covert self-expression or implicit expression of opinions (Bayley, 2004; Margalit & Mauger, 1985; Terlutter et al, 2010; Yoon & Kim, 2021). What this study aims for is not stereotyping the cultural traits on explicitness of persuasion, but describing the general, dynamic, and changing differences or similarities that exist between cultures from the East and West on how they express their points of view in international communication.…”