0
Speak images louder than words? Or should we combine them?
______________________________________________
An experiment into the effects of message framing, image valence, congruence and incongruence in charity advertisements.
Course: Master Thesis, Graduate School of Communication, Master’s
Communication Science
Instructor: C. Meppelink
Name/student nr.: Annelotte Hendriks (10211284)
Date: June 24, 2016
1
Abstract
Marketers attempt different tactics to convince the audience to support and donate to charities. The current research has investigated whether making use of message framing and image valence in charity advertisements, is an effective strategy or not to influence people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money. This study used a 2 (message framing; positive vs. negative) x 2 (image valence; positive vs. negative) experimental between-subjects design. The hypotheses in this study were not supported. Nevertheless, two unexpected significant results were found. When charity marketers want to influence people’s attitude towards the advertisement it is advised to pick a positive image in the advertisement over a negative image. Also, positive congruence proved to be more effective than negative congruence in charity advertisements to influence people’s attitude towards the advertisement. Further theoretical and practical
implications of the research are debated in the discussion section.
Introduction
In 2013, Unicef launched a new campaign with the slogan: ‘Facebook ‘likes’ won’t save children’s lives’ to make people aware of the urgency of donating money. With this statement, Unicef wanted to tell the public that although they appreciate all the online support, it is more important that people donate for humanitarian aid (Toor, 2013). For non-profit organizations, donations from the public are becoming more important since governments have decided to spend less money on funding. As a result of this, charities have to spend a higher sum of money from their total budget on marketing strategies in order to create more awareness and attract attention from the public (Small & Verrochi, 2009). The lack of news coverage of ongoing
2 problems, the need of humanitarian help and issues in the world that are too unpopular to mention, especially problems in third-world countries, are a recurring difficulty for charities (Das, Kerkhof & Kuiper, 2008). These different obstacles in the charity world mean that it is very important for charities to know how to reach their target audience, and thus see the importance of the overall content in their advertisements.
In an attempt to tackle these obstacles, one of the techniques used in charity campaigns is to catch the audience’s attention by using various types of frames in the textual message of the advertisements. This is called message framing (Chang & Lee, 2009). It is thought that in order to improve people’s attitudes and willingness to donate, it is very important to present the advertisements’ messages in a tactical way (Bendapudi, Singh & Bendapudi, 1996), but unresolved questions about the influence of framing on behaviour still remain (Chang, 2007). Next to the textual message in advertisements, charities often also use different types of images in their advertisements to reach their target audience. When charities make use of positive and negative valence in images in advertisements this is called image valence (Schneider et al., 2001). This study will research the question whether message framing and image valence have an effect on people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money. Besides these possible main effects, the study will also examine whether there is interplay when you combine message framing and image valence on the dependent variables. Therefore, attention will be focused on the effect of making use of message-image congruence and message-image incongruence in charity advertisements. In this study, congruence means that both the message and the image are positive or negative within the
3 advertisement. Incongruence means that there is a discrepancy between the message and the image within the advertisement (Sjodin & Törn, 2006).
The goal of this study is to give more insight into the possible effects that message framing and image valence may have in charity advertisements, in this case for Unicef. To examine these possible effects, and whether or not these effects interact when the advertisement is congruent or incongruent, the following research question is central to this study: ‘To what extent do message framing and image valence influence people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money for a good cause?’.
To answer this research question, there will be several hypotheses introduced in the theory section of the current study. Research on framed messages, image valence and combining them congruently and incongruently in advertisements for charities is still very scarce, and so the current research will shed more light on the topic. In contrast to the positive outcomes found in using message-image congruence in advertisements (Chang & Lee, 2009), there are also studies that show a positive outcome when using message-image incongruence in advertisements (Moore, Stammerjohan & Coulter, 2005), which makes this an interesting topic for further research due to unsolved questions on the effect of message framing and image valence on behaviour. Charities need to adjust their campaigns to their target audience and their desired goals. How to persuade people to donate money is an important subject to study, given that charities do not yet have enough knowledge about this topic and face donation problems on a daily basis, as mentioned earlier.
Theory
4 negative) and image valence (positive vs. negative) in charity advertisements on people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money (figure 1). The following paragraphs discuss the theoretical background of the concepts used in this study and their possible interactions.
Message framing
The first persuasive strategy investigated in the current research is message framing, which can influence people’s judgment and decisions through the way information is presented (Nabi, 2003). Framing research is rooted in the basics of the prospect theory, which states that people base their decisions on the results that these decisions may have in terms of gains and losses. This means that people only think about what they could win or lose individually by behaving in a certain way. By making use of heuristics, people evaluate these potential gains and losses (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). When a message is positively-framed in charity advertisements there is a focus on the gains and benefits of taking action. In contrast, when a message is negatively-framed, there is a focus on the losses and costs of failing to take action (Tsai, 2007).
This explanation of framing by Tsai (2007) outlines how each frame shows one side of the information, which in principle can also be applied to charities’ advertisements since charities have increasing donations as their main goal. According to previous research, the influence of both types of frames are present in the evaluation of the information that is being framed, compared with information that is presented in a more neutral frame (Levin, Schneider & Gaeth, 1998). The question
5 remains however, whether either positively- or negatively-framed messages have more impact on people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money.
To explain the deeper persuasive effect of negatively-framed messages in charity advertising, the model of negativity bias can be examined. According to the model of negativity bias, negatively-framed messages are more likely to contradict what people expect (Martin, 1995). As people are more used to seeing positive messages surrounding them, a negative message will stand out more and possibly violate expectations. Therefore people will behave more critically and pay more attention to the negative message they are exposed to, in this case an advertisement (Lenvin, Schneider & Gaeth, 1998). As learning is a direct consequence of paying attention to the advertisement, the more likely it is that what people learn may influence their donating behaviour. This type of learning occurs more when people are exposed to negative information than to positive information (Lenvin, Schneider & Gaeth, 1998). Chang and Lee (2009) found that a negatively-framed message is more effective on stimulating donation intentions than a positively-framed message. However, this applies only when it comes to long-term problems, which is the case with humanitarian aid. When it comes to short-term problems, it proves to be the other way around (Chang & Lee, 2009).
Next to the willingness of donating money, this study focuses on influencing people’s attitude towards the advertisement and attitude towards the charity by making use of message framing in advertisements. Previous research from Homer and Yoon (1992) in the field of consumer research, where they used an advertisement for a hypothetical brand of mouthwash, also states that negatively-framed messages have a greater influence on the consumer paying attention to the message than
positively-6 framed messages, but only if they process the available information systematically. According to Grau and Folse (2007) a positively-framed message used in campaigns for non-profit organizations, leads to a more positive attitude towards the campaign in comparison to a negatively-framed message. Positively-framed messages in advertisements also influences people’s attitude towards the brand. Buda and Zhang (2000) found that participants who were exposed to a positively-framed message had a more positive attitude towards the brand than participants who were exposed to a negatively-framed message in an advertisement. These findings are comparable to the study of Chang (2008), where a positive effect of positively-framed messages was found on the attitude with respect to a product. As the brand Unicef is also central in the current study, it can be expected that these findings will also apply to message framing effects in charity advertisements.
The previous outcomes emphasize that in general negatively-framed messages may have a greater influence on donation intentions than positively-framed messages. Also, people will be more concerned with the losses that may occur. People who see the advertisement will probably feel that they want to avoid the negative outcomes, which may occur if they do not support Unicef. When it comes to influencing people’s attitudes towards the advertisement and attitude towards the charity, a different approach is in order. For using positively-framed messages in advertisements appears to be more evidence, when it comes to influencing attitudes. Therefore the following is expected:
H1a: Charity advertisements are more effective when the message in the advertisement is positively-framed on people’s attitude towards the advertisement than negatively-framed.
7 H1b: Charity advertisements are more effective when the message in the advertisement is positively-framed on people’s attitude towards the charity than negatively-framed.
H1c: Charity advertisements are more effective when the message in the advertisement is negatively-framed on people’s willingness to donate money than positively-framed.
Image valence
Framing within an advertisement can also occur with the use of images. Perrine and Heather (2000) state that the display of images is frequently used to enhance the effectiveness of charity advertising. According to Messaris and Abraham (2001) there are different aspects to an image which can capture the audience’s attention and influence them, for example, the angle of an image, close ups, editing, emotions, and so forth. Therefore, the current research will focus on the different effects that positive and negative image valence may have on people’s attitudes and donating behaviour. This means that the valence of the image in the advertisements is seen as positive when the child is smiling, and seen as negative when the child is crying. Previous studies have concluded that people are more willing to donate money to a charity when the advertisement contains children than when the advertisement depicts adults (Eayrs & Ellis, 1990; Smillie, 1995). Due to the fact that people are more impressionable regarding images of children who need help and who are powerless, which points to features of childhood (Burman, 1994).
With the use of images, there is a better guarantee that the truth of the message will be portrayed than other forms of communication can accomplish (Messaris & Abraham, 2001). By making use of certain images of reality in an advertisement, people who are exposed to the advertisement will feel that the advertisement has a
8 higher sense of authenticity, which an advertisement without an image can never have (Messaris & Abraham, 2001). Just as a message is framed, the same process needs to happen when choosing an image to reach the audience and grab their attention. It is of great importance that the image in the advertisement will influence people in the desired way.
According to the study of Thornton, Kirchner and Jacobs, (1991), negative images have a larger impact on eliciting more contributions to charities out of sympathy, when compared with the results of people who were exposed to an advertisement without images. Small and Verrochi (2009) also state that people are more likely to donate money when the advertisement from a charity contains a image of a child with a sad facial expression, in comparison with a child that is happy or has a neutral expression. Furthermore, negative images increase the persuasiveness of the advertisement by being more true to reality for the receiver of the message (Chang & Lee, 2009). On the other hand, Isen and Noonberg (1979) found that people who were exposed to negative images were less willing to donate money for a charity, and contributed less than people who were exposed to positive and neutral images. One reason for this is that people sometimes would rather look away when they are faced with terrifying images instead of facing the problems underlying those images and becoming a part of it, for example by donating money.
The effect of image valence on attitude towards the advertisement and attitude towards the charity are also being examined in the current study. Little research is done about the specific influence of image valence in advertisements on people’s attitude towards charities or charity advertisements. However, Horan (2015) investigated whether anti-speeding posters were more effective when the valence of the image in the poster was positive or negative. The results show that the negative
9 anti-speeding poster was more effective on people’s attitude towards the advertisement than the positive anti-speeding poster as people paid more attention to the negative version. Another research from Neumann and Strack (2000), found that when people are confronted with sad facial expressions in advertisements, they are likely to copy this sad emotional state. As a greater feeling of sympathy with the person in the advertisement results from this sad emotional state, this may lead to a more positive attitude towards the advertisement.
Thus, images with a negative tone do not always guarantee that behaviour will be influenced in a positive way for charities. Nevertheless, more evidence implies that making use of negative image valence is more effective than positive image valence on influencing donating intention for charities. When it comes to influencing people’s attitude towards the advertisement and attitude towards the charity, there is very scarce research available. In the little evidence that is found, negative image valence seems to be more effective than positive image valence in advertisements. Therefore the following is expected:
H2a: Charity advertisements are more effective when the valence of the image in the advertisement is negative on people’s attitude towards the advertisement than positive.
H2b: Charity advertisements are more effective when the valence of the image in the advertisement is negative on people’s attitude towards the charity than positive.
H2c: Charity advertisements are more effective when the valence of the image in the advertisement is negative on people’s willingness to donate money than positive.
10 Congruence vs. incongruence
When launching a campaign, textual information alone is not considered to be enough to catch the audience’s full attention. Therefore images and text need to be combined (Joffe, 2008). When positive and negative images and texts are being combined into one advertisement, congruence and incongruence can both occur within the advertisement. As mentioned, congruence here means that the message and the image are both either positive or negative. Incongruence means that there is a discrepancy between the message and the image within the advertisement (Sjodin & Törn, 2006).
The cognitive dissonance theory can be used to better understand the possible effects of congruence and incongruence within an advertisement. According to the cognitive dissonance theory, people may experience an uncomfortable tension when they are exposed to facts or opinions that are contrary to their own beliefs, opinions or behaviour. As a result of this uncomfortable tension, people feel the urge to reduce this dissonance by unconsciously bringing them more into line with each other (Festinger, 2010). For the current research, this means that when the feeling of dissonance, caused by incongruence in charity advertisements, is too high people will lack the motivation to change their behaviour (Stone & Fernandez, 2008).
Little research has been done regarding specific congruence and incongruence in charity advertisements. Most research has focused on the thematic congruence and incongruence of an advertisement (Dahlén, Rosengren, Törn & Öhman, 2008; Moorman, Neijens & Smit, 2002; Russell, 2002; Sjodin & Törn, 2006). Moormann, Neijens and Smit (2002) found, for example, that thematically congruent advertisements were better remembered than thematically incongruent advertisements. Furthermore, Meyers-Levy and Tybout (1989) examined whether a schema congruent and incongruent advertisement about soft drinks had an effect on
11 people’s attitude towards the product. In their research, a comparison was made between a specific product and a more general product category. They found that the congruent advertisement had a more positive effect on people’s attitude towards the soft drink than when an incongruent advertisement was used. People remembered the overall content of an advertisement better when the content of the advertisement was congruent. McGill and Anand (1989) also found that when the image is congruent with the message of the advertisement, this leads to an improvement in the attention people paid to the advertisement.
In contrast to the positive effects of congruence within advertisements, incongruence can cause problems for people processing the content of the advertisement when the image and words are different from each other. Due to the fact that the overall message of the advertisement is not clear enough to process (Smith & Shaffer, 2000), which can decrease the intent of the advertisement (Chang & Lee, 2009). In addition to difficulty in processing the content, incongruence also has a negative effect on the information that people remember from the advertisement. People remember less information from an incongruent advertisement in comparison with a congruent advertisement (Smith & Shaffer, 2000). Chang and Lee (2009) state that people who were exposed to negative message-image congruence had more positive thoughts about the advertisement than people who were exposed to an advertisement with positive message-image congruence. Nevertheless, Heckler and Childers (1992) state that incongruence ensures that people will take more time to evaluate and process what they see, and therefore the content of the advertisement will be stored better and therefore longer in people’s memory.
To translate these findings of difficulty of processing and memorizing the advertisements from charities, the use of an incongruent advertisement may activate
12 an error in people’s minds by being too complex and dissonant, or it may increase product reactance and thus distract potential money donors from the purpose of the advertisement, and thereby result in adverse effects. Incongruent advertisements may create a feeling of inconsistency, as it seems out of balance when negative and positive frames are used into the same advertisement. Therefore the following interactions are expected:
H3: Message-image congruence within the advertisement is more effective on attitude toward the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money than message-image incongruence.
H4: Negative message-image congruence within the advertisement is more effective on attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money than positive message-image congruence.
At last, a conceptual model is drawn to visualise the variables in the current research and in what direction they are investigated:
Figure 1: Conceptual model of research question, hypotheses and variables. Framing (positive vs.
negative)
Image valence (positive vs. negative)
Attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money H1a, 1b, 1c H2a, 2b, 2c, 3, 4
13
Method
The current research used a 2 (message framing; positive vs. negative) x 2 (image valence; positive vs. negative) experimental between-subjects design. The independent variables, message framing and image valence, are manipulated in the experiment. The study was conducted among male and female Dutch participants with a starting age of 18 years old. The participants were randomly allocated to one of the four conditions. Participants allocated to condition 1 were exposed to an advertisement for Unicef with a positively-framed message and positive image valence, participants in condition 2 to an advertisement with a negatively-framed message and positive image valence, participants in conditions 3 to an advertisement with a negatively-framed message and negative image valence and participants in condition 4 to an advertisement with a positively-framed message and negative image valence. Every condition was exposed to an advertisement for the same charity (Unicef) to keep this under full control.
Stimulus material
For the manipulation of the study, a mock Unicef advertisement was used. By making use of an existing charity like Unicef, the advertisement has more credibility for the participants in the experiment. For every advertisement an image was used with the same child in the exact same composition. To manipulate the advertisement in the correct manner for all four conditions, the emotion on the child’s face was photoshopped. For the positive image valence conditions into a happy facial expression, and for the negative image valence conditions into a sad and crying facial expression. Next to the image, the message in the advertisement was also manipulated into a negatively-framed message and a positively-framed message for the different
14 conditions in the experiment. The positively-framed message states, ‘With your help 14.000 children are annually saved from malnutrition’. In contrast, the negatively-framed message states ‘Without your help 14.000 children die annually from malnutrition’ (see appendix I). The text on the stimulus material were translated to Dutch, as all the participants in the experiment were Dutch.
Pre-test
To ascertain beforehand whether the manipulations worked in the desired way, 28 participants completed a pre-test. 16 women and 12 men participated in the pre-test, with an average age of 27 years old (SD = 2.28). The results of the pre-test show that the participants (n = 14) who were exposed to an advertisement from Unicef with a positively-framed message (M = 6.50, SD = 1.06) considered this as more positive than the participants who were exposed to an advertisement from Unicef with a negatively-framed message (M = 3.75, SD = 1.77), F(1,28) = 7.78, p = .022. In addition, participants (n = 14) who were exposed to an advertisement from Unicef with a positively-pictured image (M = 5.50, SD = 1.01), considered this as more positive than the participants who were exposed to an advertisement from Unicef with a negatively-pictured image (M = 4.75, SD = 0.96), F(1,28) = 1.17, p = .034. Thus, the manipulations in the experiment of message framing and image valence worked in the desired way.
Participants
The questionnaire for the main study was started by 163 participants, but only completed by 133. For this reason, 30 participants were deleted from the data as they did not fill in any questions of the survey but only entered. The participants, 24,4%
15 men and 74,1% women, were aged between 19 and 78 years old, with an average age of 32 years old (SD = 14.05). The experiment was conducted via an online questionnaire from Qualtrics. Participants were recruited through Facebook, e-mail, and face-to-face contact, and besides these direct tactics, also through snowballing whereby participants asked others whether they also wished to participate in the study. This method of recruiting participants leads to more heterogeneity of the sample and a higher level of external validity (Campbell & Stanley, 2015; Teddlie & Yu, 2007).
Procedure
To create the questionnaire, the program Qualtrics was used (www.qualtrics.nl). As mentioned, the link to the survey was shared through Facebook and e-mail for the purpose of recruiting participants. Also, people were actively approached face-to-face by the researcher and asked to participate in the study. These participants were sent a link to the questionnaire by e-mail.
As a participant clicked on the link to the survey, they were automatically directed to the questionnaire. Before starting the questionnaire, the participants were told that the study was about advertisements for charities in general. Participants could choose to give informed consent or not. When they did not, they were thanked for their participation and left the questionnaire. Participating in the survey was completely anonymous and voluntary.
The participants who did give informed consent then came to the questionnaire, which consisted of exposure to one of the four advertisements as long as the participant wished, after which followed several questions. The participants were randomly allocated to one of the four conditions. After completing the
16 questionnaire, it was explained to the participants what the actual purpose of the study was and the participants were thanked for their participation in the study.
Dependent variables
The first measured dependent variable in the current study was people’s attitude towards the advertisement. To measure people’s attitude towards the advertisement after being exposed to it, an existing scale from Spears and Singh (2004) was used. This was a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 represented the lowest and 7 the highest attitude towards the advertisement. Participants were asked to what extent they found the advertisement from Unicef ‘unappealing/appealing’, ‘bad/good’, ‘unpleasant/pleasant’, ‘unfavourable/favourable’ and ‘unlikeable/likeable’. (Chronbach’s alpha = .83, Eigen value = 3.02, M = 4.35, SD = 1.10).
The scale from Spears and Singh (2004) was also used to measure the second dependent variable, attitude towards the charity. Participants were asked to give their general impression of the brand Unicef with the same 7-point Likert scale, where 1 represented the lowest and 7 the highest attitude towards the charity. (Chronbach’s alpha = .91, Eigen value = 3.37, M = 5.20, SD = 1.11).
The third and last dependent variable in the current study was people’s willingness to donate money. This variable was measured with an existing scale from Zagefka, Noor and Brown (2012). There were five items used on a 7-point Likert scale in the experiment that measured the willingness to donate money. The following statements were included: ‘I think it is important to give donations to victims who need humanitarian help’, ‘I would be willing to give donations to victims who need humanitarian help’, ‘I think it is the right thing to do to give donations to victims who need humanitarian help’, ‘I think everyone should donate money to victims who need
17 humanitarian help’, and ‘I would give the maximum amount of money I could afford to victims who need humanitarian help’, (Chronbach’s alpha = .76, Eigen value = 2.63, M = 4.58, SD = 1.03). As there were used existing scales in the experiment, the internal validity will be higher. By making use of existing scales it is very likely that they measured the variables in the intended way (Campbell & Stanley, 2015; Clark & Watson, 1995). Due to the participants in the experiment were Dutch, all the scales and questions in the questionnaire were translated to Dutch.
Manipulation check
To check whether the manipulations of message framing and image valence also worked in the true experiment, extra questions were added at the end of the questionnaire. The participants were asked to what extent they thought the text in the advertisement from Unicef was positive or negative on a 7-point Likert scale that ranged from ‘very negative’ to ‘very positive’. The same question was asked about the image in the advertisement. The scales and questions in the questionnaire were translated to Dutch, as all the participants in the experiment were Dutch.
Results
Randomization check
To check if random assignment to the different conditions was successful in the experiment several tests were conducted. First, an one-way ANOVA with a Post Hoc test was executed. For this ANOVA the variable ‘conditions’ was used as the independent variable in combination with ‘age’ as dependent variable. There was no main effect found for the four conditions, F(1, 133) = .44, p = .723, η2 = .01. Thus,
18 there were no differences found between the different conditions on age, which means that the randomization of age to the four conditions was successful.
Next, to check whether the conditions for ‘gender’ and ‘educational level’ differ, two Chi-square tests were conducted. There were no differences found between the four conditions and gender, Χ 2(1, N = 133) = 2.78, p = .427, nor for the four conditions and educational level, Χ 2
(1, N = 133) = 11,87, p = .688. Based on the Chi-square analyses conducted, there can be assumed that the randomization of gender and educational level in the four different conditions were successful.
Manipulation check
To check whether the manipulations of the independent variables message framing (positive vs. negative) and image valence (positive vs. negative) in the experiment worked in the desired way, there were executed two one-way ANOVA analyses, due to the fact that there are four conditions in the experiment. First there was executed an one-way ANOVA to check whether the manipulation of type of message frame worked in the desired way in every condition. Using ‘type of frame’ as the independent variable and ‘self-reported framing’ as the dependent variable. Based on the outcomes the manipulation check for type of message frame worked. F(1, 133) = 325.55, p = < .001, η2 = .72. Participants who were exposed to the positively-framed message (M = 5.66, SD = 1.03) experienced this as more positive than participants who were exposed to the negatively-framed message (M = 2.46, SD = 1.01).
Second, there was executed an one-way ANOVA to check whether the manipulation of type of image valence worked in the desired way for every condition. Using ‘type of image valence’ as the independent variable and ‘self-reported valence’ as the dependent variable. Based on the outcomes of the analysis, the manipulation
19 check for type of image valence worked F(1, 133) = 111.39, p = < .001, η2 = .38. Participants who were exposed to the image with positive valence (M = 5.24, SD = 1.46) experienced this as more positive than participants who were exposed to the image with negative valence (M = 2.59, SD = 1.43). As both analyses show significant outcomes there can be assumed that both manipulations of the independent variables message framing and image valence worked. Participants experienced the positively-framed message as more positive than the negatively-framed message in the advertisement. The image of the happy child was also experienced as more positive than the image of the crying child.
Hypotheses
To test whether message framing (positive vs. negative) and image valence (positive vs. negative) play a role when used in charity advertisements, three two-way ANOVA’s were conducted. With ‘type of valence’ and ‘type of frame’ as independent variables and with every ANOVA a different dependent variable. To test hypothesis 1a and 2a, whether there is an effect of type of frame and type of valence on people’s attitude towards the advertisement, the first ANOVA is conducted. The results show that there is no significant main effect for type of frame F(1, 133) = .16, p = .691, η2 = .00. For type of valence there is found a significant main effect F(1, 133) = 23.12, p < .00, η2 = .15, but not for the interaction effect between both F(1, 133) = 1.01, p = .316, η2 = .00. This means that participants in the positively-framed condition (M = 4.39, SD = 1.14) did not scored higher than participants in the negatively-framed condition (M = 4.31, SD = 1.07) on attitude towards the advertisement. Therefore hypothesis 1a is rejected. Next, participants in the positive image valence condition (M = 4.77, SD = 1.13) scored higher than participants in the
20 negative image valence condition (M = 3.92, SD = 0.90) on attitude towards the advertisement. Surprisingly, this is the opposite from what was expected. Therefore hypothesis 2a is rejected.
To test hypothesis 1b and 2b, whether there is an effect of type of frame and type of valence on people’s attitude towards the charity, the second ANOVA is conducted. The results show that there is no significant main effect for type of frame F(1, 133) = .38, p = .540, η2 = .00, nor for type of valence F(1, 133) = 1.98, p = .161, η2 = .01, nor an significant interaction effect between both F(1, 133) = 1.02, p = .351, η2 = .00. Thus, this means that participants in the positively-framed condition (M = 5.15, SD = 1.29) did not scored higher than participants in the negatively-framed condition (M = 5.26, SD = .89) on attitude towards the charity and that participants in the negative image valence condition (M = 5.07, SD = 1.06) did not scored higher than participants in the positive image valence condition (M = 5.34, SD = 1.15) on attitude towards the charity. Therefore hypotheses 1b and 2b are rejected.
To test hypothesis 1c and 2c, whether there is an effect of type of frame and type of valence on people’s willingness to donate money, the third ANOVA is conducted. The results show that there is no significant main effect for type of frame F(1, 133) = .89, p = .345, η2 = .00, nor for type of valence F(1, 133) = 1.34, p = .248, η2 = .01, nor an significant interaction effect between both F(1, 133) = .25, p = .615, η2 = .00. Thus, this means that participants in the negatively-framed condition (M = 4.66, SD = 1.09) did not scored higher than the participants in the positively-framed condition (M = 4.49, SD = 0.96) and that participants in the negative image valence condition (M = 4.68, SD = 0.93) did not scored higher than participants in the positive image valence condition (M = 4.48, SD = 1.12) on willingness to donate money. Therefore hypotheses 1c and 2c are rejected.
21 To test the third hypothesis whether message-image congruence is more effective than message-image incongruence within the advertisement on the dependent variables, an independent-samples t-test is conducted. There was no significant difference in the scores for participants who were exposed to the congruent advertisement (M = 4.43, SD = 1.10) and participants who were exposed to the incongruent advertisement (M = 4.27, SD = 1.11) on people’s attitude towards the advertisement; t(131) = -.83, p = .405, nor for participants who were exposed to the congruent advertisement (M = 5.29, SD = 1.10) and participants who were exposed to the incongruent advertisement (M = 5.11, SD = 1.11) on people’s attitude towards the charity; t(131) = -.97, p = .333, and nor for participants who were exposed to the congruent advertisement (M = 4.54, SD = 1.04) and participants who were exposed to the incongruent advertisement (M = 4.62, SD = 1.03) on people’s willingness to donate money; t(131) = .48, p = .629. These results suggest that message-image congruence within the advertisement has no stronger effect on the dependent variables than message-image incongruence within the advertisement, or the other way around. Therefore hypothesis 3 is rejected.
At last, for the expectation of hypothesis four that negative message-image congruence has a stronger effect on the dependent variables than positive message-image congruence within the advertisement, another independent-samples t-test is conducted. There was a significant difference between the scores from participants who were exposed to the negative congruent advertisement (M = 3.97, SD = .88) and participants who were exposed to the positive congruent advertisement (M = 4.89, SD = 1.11) on people’s attitude towards the advertisement; t(65) = 3.78, p = < .001. This means that the positive congruent advertisement had a stronger effect than the negative congruent advertisement on people’s attitude towards the advertisement.
22 This outcome is the opposite effect than what was expected based on the theory. In contrast, there was no significant difference in the scores for participants who were exposed to the negative congruent advertisement (M = 5.22, SD = .85) and participants who were exposed to the positive congruent advertisement (M = 5.37, SD = 1.33) on people’s attitude towards the charity; t(65) = .56, p = .576, nor for participants who were exposed to the negative congruent advertisement (M = 4.72, SD = 1.01) and participants who were exposed to the positive congruent advertisement (M = 4.34, SD = 1.05) on people’s willingness to donate money; t(65) = -1.50, p = .138. Therefore hypothesis 4 is rejected.
Discussion
The main goal of this study was to give more insight into whether message framing and image valence in an charity advertisement influences people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money to the charity. Even though two significant outcomes were found, which will be discussed later, none of the expectations based on previous literature and theories were fulfilled within this study. Further on in this section, the general outcomes, implications and ideas for future research will be discussed.
The first expected hypotheses in this study were that charity advertisements are more effective in terms of people’s attitude towards the advertisement and attitude towards the charity when the message in the advertisement was positively-framed than when negatively-framed. For the effect on people’s willingness to donate money the expectation was that a negatively-framed message would be more effective than a positively-framed message. Unfortunately, these expectations were not significant. It can be argued that the image in the advertisement took too much space within the
23 advertisement in comparison with the message. For this reason participants noticed the message in the advertisement less than the image. Therefore the positively- and negatively-framed messages had no different influence on the dependent variables. Also the theory of negativity bias was not supported within this study (Lenvin et al., 1998; Martin, 1995). In contradiction to the theory, people probably do not pay more attention to a negative message than to a positive message and therefore care more about losses than gains as a result of their behaviour. Based on the outcomes of this study, it does not matter whether charities use a negative or a positive message frame within their marketing advertisements. To conclude, the previous research and theories about message framing and the results of this study do not match.
The second expected hypotheses in this study were that charity advertisements are more effective in terms of people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money when the image on the advertisement had a negative valence than a positive valence. Even though this study was aimed at showing positive effects of image valence in advertisements for charities on the dependent variables, almost no significant results were found. Only the effect of positive image valence on people’s attitude towards the advertisement turned out to be more effective than negative image valence. This result is the opposite of what was expected. When charities want to influence people’s attitudes towards the advertisement, they would be better advised to use a positive image in their marketing advertisements than a negative image. It is therefore possible to argue that the widely established effects of message framing (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), do not apply to image valence. Some scholars even propose that the effects of framing do not exist at all (Maule & Villejoubert, 2007). The effects of image valence are still an unexplored area within marketing studies. It is therefore necessary that more
24 research is directed into the effects of image valence and how visual material like images can be used to increase the people’s attitudes and donating intentions. Only this way better insights can be gained into the effects of image valence in charity advertisements.
The third hypothesis was partly based on the cognitive dissonance theory, which predicted that congruence between the message and image in the advertisement is more effective on attitude toward the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money than incongruence between the message and image within the advertisement. This expectation was also not significant. The cognitive dissonance theory has not been confirmed by the current study. The theory which proposes that the high feeling of dissonance, which results in a lack of motivation to change behaviour when exposed to an incongruent advertisement, turned out to be untrue in this study. There were no different effects found between the conditions that were exposed to the congruent or the incongruent advertisement. An explanation for this result could be that in the present study no scale to measure people’s attention for the advertisement was included. If participants have not paid enough attention to the advertisement, it may be possible that they have not noticed that the message and image in the advertisement were congruent or incongruent. The effects of framing in combination with information processing and attention remain unexplored (Das, Kerkhof & Kuiper, 2008). Due to the relatively little research that exists regarding specific congruence and incongruence within advertisements and the effects of framing in combination with attention for the advertisement and information processing, this is a theme that needs more attention in future research to fill the gap that is still missing on this topic. What can be concluded is that message-image congruence has no different effect than message-image incongruence in charity
25 advertisements. Marketers may pick which tactic they want to obtain as there were no different effects found.
The fourth and last hypothesis, which predicted that negative message-image congruence, is more effective on attitude toward the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and willingness to donate money than positive message-image congruence within the advertisement was also not supported. The opposite effect was found. An explanation for this effect could be that the negatively congruent advertisement had too much negativity in it, and therefore people would rather look away than do something about it, in contrast to the positively congruent advertisement. This backfire-effect, which leads to avoidance, normally occurs when people are confronted with health communication advertisements due to the amount of health risks they are exposed to (Peters, Ruiter & Kok, 2013; Ruiter, Abraham & Kok, 2001) but in this study it could have been the reason why the positively congruent advertisement turned out to be more effective than the negatively congruent advertisement. Further research should provide more insight into whether this effect may also occur in marketing communication advertisements for charities. The advise from these results that can be given at this moment, is that marketers for charities should take a positive approach when they create a marketing advertisement that consists of a message combined with an image.
Next to the general outcomes, there are some points for improvement and suggestions for future research with regard to this study. First of all, the scale that measured people’s willingness to donate money for a charity could have been answered with socially desirable intentions instead of the truth. During the pre-test of the study, there was a click-button within the questionnaire, which said ‘click here to donate now’ to test whether participants would really donate or not. The problem was
26 that when participants clicked on the button, they were not transferred to the Unicef website and only the number of clicks on the button were visible in the data. As nothing happened when participants clicked on the button, they thought something was wrong with the questionnaire and they left the survey early, which was bad for the response rate. For this reason, the click-button was deleted from the questionnaire. In future research a click-button to donate money could be developed where participants are actually redirected to the website of the charity.
Secondly, there are some small points where in future research can be focused on. For instance, the colours that were used in the advertisements of the current study. As Unicef uses a specific colour of blue in their logo and on their website, this same colour was used in the advertisement to give it more credibility. For the image in the advertisement, a black-and-white photograph of a child was used. Little research is executed about the effects of different colours in marketing advertisements (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Yi & Dahl, 1997). For this reason no valid conclusions can be drawn on whether the colours in the advertisement had an effect on the outcomes of the current study, which makes this an interesting topic for future research. Next to the colours, the image in the advertisement took more space than the message. By making use of eye-tracking in future research there can be measured whether people, due to the different surfaces, had more attention for the image or for the message in the advertisement. When this is the case, it could bias the outcomes (Bebko, Sciulli & Bhagat, 2014).
Innovative about this study is that message-image congruence and incongruence within charity advertisements was never investigated before, neither was the effect of image valence in charity advertisements. Parts of the gap in the literature about this topic are fulfilled thanks to the current study. Summarizing, the
27 answer to the research question ‘To what extent do message framing and image valence influence people’s attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the charity and people’s willingness to donate money for a good cause?’. It is clear that for charity advertisements, it does not make any difference whether a positively- or negatively-framed message is used or that a positive or a negative image is used in the advertisements. An exception for this outcome is when marketers want to increase people’s attitude towards the advertisement. In this case it is advised to pick a positive image over a negative image. Furthermore, image congruence or message-image incongruence has no different effect in charity advertisements. An exception to this outcome is when marketers want to influence people’s attitude towards the advertisement. In this case marketers are advised when they want to use a congruent advertisement, to choose a positively congruent advertisement instead of a negatively congruent advertisement.
References
Bebko, C., Sciulli, L. M., & Bhagat, P. (2014). Using eye tracking to assess the impact of advertising appeals on donor behavior. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 26(4), 354-371.
Bendapudi, N., Singh, S. N., & Bendapudi, V. (1996). Enhancing helping behavior: An integrative framework for promotion planning. The Journal of Marketing, 33-49.
Buda, R. & Zhang, Y. (2000). Consumer product evaluation: the interactive effect of message framing, presentation order, and source credibility. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 9(4), 229- 242.
Burman, E. (1994). Poor children: Charity appeals and ideologies of childhood. Changes: An International Journal of Psychology and Psychotherapy, 12(1),
28 29-36.
Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (2015). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Ravenio Books.
Chang, C. T. (2007). Interactive effects of message framing, product perceived risk, and mood—The case of travel healthcare product advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 47(1), 51-65.
Chang, C. (2008). Ad framing effects for consumption products: An affect priming process. Psychology & Marketing, 25, 24-46.
Chang, C. T., & Lee, Y. K. (2009). Framing Charity Advertising: Influences of Message Framing, Image Valence, and Temporal Framing on a Charitable Appeal1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(12), 2910-2935.
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological assessment, 7(3), 309.
Dahlén, M., Rosengren, S., Törn, F. & Öhman, N. (2008). Could placing ads wrong be right? Advertising effects of thematic incongruence. Journal of Advertising, 37(3), 57-67.
Das, E., Kerkhof, P., & Kuiper, J. (2008). Improving the effectiveness of fundraising messages: The impact of charity goal attainment, message framing, and evidence on persuasion. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 36(2), 161-175.
Eayrs, C.B. & Ellis, N. (1990). Charity advertising: For or against people with a mental handicap? British Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 349-360. Festinger, L. (2010). Cognitive dissonance theory. R. West and LH Turner,
Introducing communication Theory Analysis and Application, 4, 112-128. Gorn, G. J., Chattopadhyay, A., Yi, T., & Dahl, D. W. (1997). Effects of color as an
29 executional cue in advertising: They're in the shade. Management science, 43(10), 1387-1400.
Grau, S. L., & Folse, J. A. G. (2007). Cause-related marketing (CRM): The influence of donation proximity and message-framing cues on the less-involved
consumer. Journal of Advertising, 36(4), 19-33.
Heckler, S. E., & Childers, T. L. (1992). The role of expectancy and relevancy in memory for verbal and visual information: What is incongruency? Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 475–492.
Homer, P.M. & Yoon, S. (1992). Message framing and the interrelationships among ad-based feelings, affect, and cognition. Journal of Advertising, 21, 19-33. Horan, L. M. (2015). Exploring the influence of message framing and image valence
on the effectiveness of anti-speeding posters. Journal of Advertising 33, 12-21. Isen, A. M., & Noonberg, A. (1979). The effect of photographs of the handicapped on
donation to charity: when a thousand words may be too much. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 9(5), 426-431.
Joffe, H. (2008). The power of visual material: Persuasion, emotion and identification. Diogenes, 217(55), 84-93.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 263-291.
Levin, I. P., Schneider, S. L., & Gaeth, G. J. (1998). All frames are not created equal: A typology and critical analysis of framing effects. Organizational Behavior and Health Decision Processes, 76, 149–188.
Martin, B. A. S. (1995). Is the glass half-empty or half-full? How the framing of advertising messages affects consumer responses. New Zealand Journal of Business, 17, 95–105.
30 Maule, J., & Villejoubert, G. (2007). What lies beneath: Reframing framing effects.
Thinking & Reasoning, 13(1), 25-44.
McGill, A. L., & Anand, P. (1989). The effects of vividness attributes on the evaluation of alternatives: The role of differential attention and cognitive elaboration. Journal of Consumer Research, 16, 188–196.
Messaris, P & Abraham, L. (2001). The role of images in framing news stories. In S.D. Reese, O.H. Gandy & A.E. Grant (Eds.), Framing public life:
Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world. (pp. 215-226). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Meyers-Levy, J., & Tybout, A. M. (1989). Schema congruity as a basis for product evaluation. Journal of consumer research, 39-54.
Moore, R. S., Stammerjohan, C. A., & Coulter, R. A. (2005). Banner advertiser-web site context congruity and color effects on attention and attitudes. Journal of advertising, 34(2), 71-84.
Moorman, M., Neijens, P. C., & Smit, E. G. (2002). The effects of magazine-induced psychological responses and thematic congruence on memory and attitude toward the ad in a real-life setting. Journal of Advertising, 31(4), 27-40. Nabi, R.L. (2003). Exploring the framing effects of emotion. Communication
Research, 30(2), 224-247.
Neumann, R., & Strack, F. (2000). " Mood contagion": the automatic transfer of mood between persons. Journal of personality and social psychology, 79(2), 211.
Peters, G. J. Y., Ruiter, R. A., & Kok, G. (2013). Threatening communication: a critical re-analysis and a revised meta-analytic test of fear appeal
31 Perrine, R. M., & Heather, S. (2000). Effects of picture and even-a-penny- will-help
appeals on anonymous donations to charity. Psychological Reports, 86, 551– 559.
Ruiter, R. A., Abraham, C., & Kok, G. (2001). Scary warnings and rational precautions: A review of the psychology of fear appeals. Psychology and Health, 16(6), 613-630.
Russell, C. A. (2002). Investigating the effectiveness of product placements in television shows: The role of modality and plot connection congruence on brand memory and attitude. Journal of Consumer Research, 29, 306-318. Schneider, T. R., Salovey, P., Pallonen, U., Mundorf, N., Smith, N. F., & Steward, W.
T. (2001). Visual and Auditory Message Framing Effects on Tobacco Smoking1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31(4), 667-682.
Sjodin, H. & Törn, F. (2006). When communication challenges brand associations: A framework for understanding consumer responses to brand image incongruity. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5(1), 32-42.
Small, D. A., & Verrochi, N. M. (2009). The face of need: Facial emotion expression on charity advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(6), 777-787. Smillie, I. (1995). The alms bazaar: Altruism under fire. Non-profit organizations and
international development. London: IT Publications.
Smith, S. M., & Shaffer, D. R. (2000). Vividness can undermine or enhance message processing: The moderating role of vividness congruency. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 769–779.
Spears, N., & Singh, S. N. (2004). Measuring attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 26(2), 53-66, DOI: 10.1080/10641734.2004.10505164.
32 Stone, J., & Fernandez, N. C. (2008). To practice what we preach: The use of
hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance to motivate behavior change. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(2), 1024-1051.
Teddlie, C., & Yu, F. (2007). Mixed methods sampling a typology with examples. Journal of mixed methods research, 1(1), 77-100.
Thornton, B., Kirchner, G., & Jacobs, J. (1991). Influence of a photograph on a charitable appeal: A picture may be worth a thousand words when it has to speak for itself. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21(6), 433-445. Toor, A. (2013). Unicef says Facebook ‘likes’ won’t save children’s lives. [online]
The Verge. Available at: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/3/4296194/unicef-facebook-activism-ad-campaign-likes-dont-save-lives [Assessed 12 Mar. 2016].
Tsai, S. P. (2007). Message framing strategy for brand communication. Journal of Advertising Research, 47(3), 364-377.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211(4481), 453-458.
Zagefka, H., Noor, M., & Brown, R. (2012). Familiarity breeds compassion: Knowledge of disaster areas and willingness to donate money to disaster victims. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 62(4), 640-654.
33
Appendix I: Stimulus material
The following advertisement is demonstrated to condition 1. The advertisement includes positive message framing and positive image valence, which means the advertisement is (positive) congruent.
34 The following advertisement is demonstrated to condition 2. The advertisement includes negative message framing and positive image valence, which means the advertisement is incongruent.
35 The following advertisement is demonstrated to condition 3. The advertisement includes negative message framing and negative image valence, which means the advertisement is (negative) congruent.
36 The following advertisement is demonstrated to condition 4. The advertisement includes positive message framing and negative image valence, which means the advertisement is incongruent.
