How the Fit of Emotionality Levels in
Advertisements and Persons influences
Brand Attitude.
June 24th, 2013
Master thesis, MSc Marketing
University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business
ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to shed light into the effects of emotional and rational advertisements on people with emotional and rational personalities. More specifically, how people with high or low levels of emotionality react towards television advertisements communicating emotional or non-emotional feelings. Research has been done on television advertisements and even included variance in emotional and rational natures. Further, studies elaborated on ad effectiveness and the creation and change of attitudes towards the advertisement itself and the brand advertised. But even when respondents have been included in prior models there was no research on a fit between emotionalities in the message and the respondent. Also, naturally rational people have been mostly neglected. Therefore, this study focuses not only on the nature of the advertisement but also on the personality of the person watching it with regard to emotionalities. It is researched if there is a fit between the emotionality levels of message and respondent. The effects have been tested through attitude formations towards the shown advertisement. 100 respondents filled in a questionnaire about two emotionally distinct video stimuli for soup advertisements. The results show that the emotional nature of an advertisement, whether it is rational or emotional, only has a marginal effect on the attitude towards the ad and subsequently the brand. Further, the existence of a fit between the level of emotionality in a person and the level of emotionality in a shown advertisement has been confirmed. Findings show that with a higher fit between the emotionalities attitude increases. Surprisingly, some gender stereotypes were repealed as well. In conclusion, it can be said that walking a line between just enough emotional and rational appeals in an advertisement to please the mainstream customer is oftentimes not the best way to operate. Depending on the target group of customers that a television advertisement is supposed to attract the appeals should be tailored. That way the attitude towards the advertisement and subsequently the brand can be increased.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ... 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... 3
1. INTRODUCTION ... 4
1.1. Variables and Research Question ... 4
1.2. Purpose of this Research ... 6
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 7
2.1. Level of Emotionality in a TV Advertisement ... 8
2.2. Brand Attitude ... 9
2.3. Level of Emotionality in a Person ... 11
2.4. Fit between the Levels of Emotionality ... 12
3. METHODOLOGY ... 15
3.1. Research Design ... 15
3.2. Stimuli ... 15
3.3. Participants ... 16
3.4. Variables and Scaling ... 16
3.5. Procedures ... 17
3.6. Analysis ... 18
4. RESULTS ... 20
4.1. Familiarity with the Advertisement ... 20
4.2. Manipulation Check ... 20
4.3. Hypothesis 1 ... 21
4.4. Hypothesis 2 ... 22
4.5. Additional Exploratory Results ... 25
5. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION ... 26
5.1. Conclusions ... 26
5.2. Managerial Implications ... 27
5.3. Limitations and Further Research ... 28
6. REFERENCES ... 29
7. APPENDIX ... 36
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Variables and Research Question
Advertisements are everywhere. But what distinguishes the boring and annoying ones from the amazing ones. Which ones are not even worth a second thought and which ones are the ones that captivate audiences after just one second?
The use of emotional TV advertisements has been studied many times before. Viewers are able to connect to them and the product on a more personal level when feelings of anger, embarrassment, sadness, or joy are shown. Advertisements for food or beverages often make use of positive state of minds and feeling good when using the product whereas some organisations fighting against abuse or global issues implement negative emotions in order to elicit responses from viewers.
Usually, emotional TV advertisement is the centre of attraction. However, when it comes to non-emotional TV advertisements some research has been done as well. Up to this day non-emotional, or rational, ads are regularly shown for products supporting the importance of them. Ads can communicate to consumers without extensive displays of emotions for example by stating facts and figures convincing the audience by mere honesty and rationality. Marketers might want to amplify the quality and seriousness of a product for example electric toothbrushes or health insurances.
Furthermore, it has been researched “that television remains the best medium to reach a wide audience quickly” (Romaniuk, 2012) and consequently advertisements – either with or without emotions – are able to communicate to and with a large amount of viewers. It has to be ensured that a positive brand attitude is created in the mind of the viewer in order to favour the product. For the development of powerful brands marketers have to get the word out in a manner that attracts the right customers at the right time and if they manage to increase brand attitude in the process marketers are one step closer to successfully creating strong brands. But how do you attract the right customers? How are marketers able to create the right fit between the message they are sending and the recipient who has to encode it in a positive way? More specifically, when is the chance for positive brand attitude formation highest?
people have strong emotions – either positive or negative – and others tend to be less emotional or more rational. As Kemp et al (2012) note “emotions play an important role in the decision making process” which in turn affect our judgements. The level of emotionality in a person can be triggered by an event but overall individuals have a tendency for a certain frame of mind. In situations where some people are highly emotional others remain in a state of low emotionality to a point of complete calmness and rationality.
Therefore, as Khan (2012) outlined depending on the viewer's generated emotional response it can positively alter the attitude that is formed towards a situation and even the brand. The question is does showing advertisements with an emotional content trigger a viewer’s own emotionality or is that too much fortune to ask for? And what about non-emotional advertisements? Do they speak more to non-emotional people or to less non-emotional people?
Previous research on the concept of affect intensity, the degree of power with which people perceive their emotions, suggest that "more types of advertising stimuli should be tested to find the most effective advertising form for low- and high-[affect intensity] individuals" (Geuens & De Pelsmacker, 1999) in order to target them more effectively. They even suggest to study the effect of TV media to "induce greater differences in responses between low- and high-[affect intensity] individuals" (Geuens & De Pelsmacker, 1999). Hence, it is time to examine these relationships thoroughly and provide useful managerial implications on how to target emotional and rational individuals with the right advertisements.
One of the most wanted effects of television advertisements is a positive attitude evoked in the viewer watching the ad because attitude is related to brand preference and influences buying behaviour (Bass & Talarzyk, 1972). Most researchers agree on the definition of people's attitudes as their "evaluation of the entity in question" (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1997). Further, "many of the attitudes that people hold are mundane and trivial [...] but many attitudes are far more important to people’s sense of identity and positive self-image" (Kenworthy & Miller, 2002). Hence, no matter how important the attitudes are that potential customers hold towards a product, they ought to be positive in order to turn them into profitable behaviour.
Summarising these concepts after introducing the main subjects of interest in this paper a research question can be posed:
How does the fit of emotionality levels between advertisements and persons influence brand attitude?
1.2. Purpose of this Research
This research examines levels of personal emotionality and its influence on the relationship between TV advertisements and brand attitude. On the one hand focus will lie on the influence of highly emotional advertisements on brand attitude depending on the level of emotionality a person has and on the other hand the opposite side of the coin will be examined, namely the effect of non-emotional/rational TV advertisement on brand attitude with a person’s level of emotionality moderating the relationship. It is especially interesting to uncover the effect of less emotionality in a person on non-emotional TV advertisements and if there is any effect on brand attitude at all. Several studies have examined emotionally charged relations but relations without strong emotions have rarely been the focus of research. In this paper importance and validity of those connections can be detected based on a direct comparison to their emotional counterparts. Results can provide new insights into advertisement practices when targeting persons with a low level of emotionality.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
As introduced before, brand attitude can be generated by various concepts of which many have been given attention to and improved the effectiveness of a marketer's position in creating successful campaigns. One of the most distinct differences in ads is the distinction of emotional and non-emotional content in the ads. Emotions are a state of mind that occurs "in response to specific challenges and goals through the incorporation of conceptual and contextual knowledge into basic affective responses" (DeSteno et al., 2013). This means that emotions are "complex perceptions" (Lindquist et al., 2013) which vary from one individual to another. The current landscape of television advertisement is broad and all kinds of ads can be found. Janssens & De Pelsmacker (2005) elaborate on the positive connections between emotional people and strongly emotional advertisements. Some scientist and researchers suggest that "emotion rather than [...] rational response guides attentioning" (Mehta & Purvis, 2006; Heath, 2011) but there are still enough rational or non-emotional advertisements shown during commercials. Viewers of an advertisement differ and "not all individuals are equally inclined to rely on the substance of a message" (Cornelis et al, 2012). Some prefer emotions to guide their processing rather than rationality or vice versa. These differences in the audience are crucial for effective marketing campaigns and resulting TV advertisements. Additionally, those people behind the campaigns of advertisements have capabilities which suggest that they have very good reasons to put out non-emotional ads. In the following both kinds of ads are defined more clearly and the purposes of each of them specified. Furthermore, they are put in relation with brand attitude which is one of the main outcomes advertisements are expected to achieve because consumers tend to generate attitudes to various marketed goods and services which in turn influence behaviour (Gbadamosi et al., 2012).
2.1. Level of Emotionality in a TV Advertisement
It is common practice that "message content discriminates rational commercials from emotional commercials" (Manrai et al., 1992) which means that the tone of every advertisement can be ranged on an emotionality scale.
When ads are supposed to connect with viewers and potential customers on the basis of emotions there are "different types of emotional execution, such as humour, eroticism, warmth, fear appeals and music" (Janssens & De Pelsmacker, 2005) used in television advertisements. Extensive usage of "appeals that associate [products] with happiness and fun" (Page & Brewster, 2007) are common in today’s emotional advertisements. Hence, all of these concepts make an advertisement more emotional and are connected to a high level of emotionality in a television ad. Emotionality is the "reactive component of emotion" (Rydell et al., 2003) and is therefore used to operationalize emotions.
Extensive research has been done and some of the findings uncover significant results stating outcomes such as "emotional messages […] had a decided advantage over neutral messages" (Thorson & Friestad, 1986) under certain conditions, and that advertisements "use emotion to schmooze the consumer" (Heath, 2011) or to gain an advantage in order to influence viewers to the marketers benefit. Additionally, it has been found that "advertising that succeeds in moving people [through emotion] will draw them closer" (Wood, 2012). "Most empirical research shows that ads with a lot of emotionality and warmth lead to positive responses to the ad and to the brand" (Janssens & De Pelsmacker, 2005) like the study done by Aaker et al. (1986) that concluded "significant and substantial correlations were found both within and between subjects for warmth and liking of the ad".
and rational decisions about products" (Page & Brewster, 2007) for customers who want to make up their opinions free from strong displays of emotions in a more objective manner. Facts and other data is transmitted by means of educating information (Aaker & Bruzzone, 1985). Prior investigations concluded that the more information advertisements contain the more effective they are. More specifically, those ads motivate “positive affective and cognitive responses” which consequently leads to a favourable attitude (Janssens & De Pelsmacker, 2005). It has also been theorised that objectivity and rationality are closely related (Ormerod, 2013; Spohn, 2002) and can result in more believable or more credible advertisements (Leonidou & Leonidou, 2009). "Ad credibility focuses on the advertisement and the consumer’s evaluation of the truth and believability of the content of the advertisement" (Cotte et al., 2005).
Summarising, the advantages of emotional and non-emotional advertisements are two different sides to a story. Putting them together with the help of research literature gives the impression that both ways of advertising positively affect attitudes even though the latest studies have a tendency to favour emotional advertisements (Carretié et al., 2004; Nielsen et al., 2010; Heath, 2011; Niazi et al., 2012) over rational or neutral advertisements (Mitchell, 1986). Television advertisements can fulfil the task of bringing the product to the minds of customers in many ways and if emotions are used in them or if they are left out for the benefit of rationality they are still able to have an impact on brand attitudes. The next section will introduce the concept of brand attitude in more detail.
2.2. Brand Attitude
Although many authors conclude that attitude does not always result in behaviour and, more specifically, buying behaviour (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1997; Faircloth et al., 2001) most behaviour is triggered by an attitude towards a brand or product. This explains why attitude it still used as a precursor for behaviour in many studies (Derbaix & Pecheux, 1999). If a positive attitude can be formed after watching a TV commercial the respondent is more likely to buy the product. Hence, attitude is an important concept when it comes to identifying buying behaviour. Additionally, figures show that in general "attitudes toward TV [advertisements] may have deteriorated" (Ewing, 2013) which is one issue that calls for more effective targeting in order to convince viewers of actually watching the commercials and consequently form a positive attitude towards the advertised product.
When the concept of emotionality in advertisements is related to attitude studies have stated highly diverse findings. Mitchell (1986) pointed out that "attitude formation and change, and eventually behavior, are based on the acquisition and retrieval of verbal information about the product" rather than by "trigger[ing] an emotional reaction" (Mitchell, 1986). Further, it has been stated before that rational advertisements are believed to be more credible and "if consumers perceive an ad as credible, they are more likely to hold a positive attitude toward the advertisement" (Cotte et al., 2005). Other researchers agree that emotional advertisements are the preferred way to intrigue a viewer and subsequently gain their interest (Aaker et al., 1986; Wood, 2012). Although opinions alternate among researchers, recent results favour emotional usage over non-emotional usage (Carretié et al., 2004; Nielsen et al., 2010; Heath, 2011; Niazi et al., 2012). Hence, combining the theories between the level of emotionality in an advertisement and the resulting attitude the following first hypothesis can be proposed:
Hypothesis 1: Highly emotional advertisements have a higher influence on brand attitude than rational (less emotional) advertisements, no matter the fit of emotionality levels.
state of the viewer can be evaluated on the same scale. Hence, the personal level of emotionality distinguishes one respondent from the next and with that the perception of the advertisement. These factors contribute to the inclusion of the next concept: The level of emotionality in a person.
2.3. Level of Emotionality in a Person
"Advertising can be an effective source of enhancement of […] emotional responses" (Mehta & Purvis, 2006) but it is no secret that every person reacts differently when emotions are shown. Individuals are, by definition, unique and many factors contribute to the way someone reacts to an emotional or non-emotional stimulus. There is for example the overall concept of gender which stereotypically influences the effect of an emotional or non-emotional advertisement. Researchers claim that females tend to be more non-emotional and therefore react more strongly towards emotional stimuli (Grossman & Wood, 1993; Robinson & Clore, 2002; Fisher & Dubé, 2005). In this field, previous work has shown that “advertising directed to just men or just women is more effective” (Cramphorn, 2011) which supports theories that advertisements have to be tailored to attract the right customer base. The concept of gender is closely related to the concept of emotionality (Robinson & Clore, 2002; Chaplin & Aldao, 2012) and the previous example shows that customers do not always favour emotional advertisement, as well as not all of them favour non-emotional advertisement. It has been researched that in the end "likeable advertising received more attention" (Heath, 2011) and when it comes down to it, it is the people watching who determine if they like an advertisement or not. Hence, it is necessary to ensure that the target customer approves of the advertisement and that it fits their preferences.
One end can be named high level of emotionality. Previous studies found that "initial emotional response, it seems, is important to decide if conscious effort will be focused on the stimuli" (Mehta & Purvis, 2006). This fact supports the theory that internal emotions have to be present to even focus on the advertisement much less form an attitude towards the advertisement. In general, for individuals “emotions are evolutionarily adaptive responses that serve to organize cognitive, judgment, experiential, behavioral, and physiological reactions to changes in the environment” (Lench et al., 2011). Emotional people, or respondents with a high level of emotionality, are more likely to experience "quick heat of anger, the dragging sorrow of sadness, and the soaring delight of joy" (Lindquist et al., 2013).
But it would be careless of marketers to assume that all viewers prefer emotionally influencing advertisement, especially in times where most customers seek all the information they can get their hands on before making an important purchase. Some people are known for their rationality, or their low level of emotionality. This is the other, opposite end of levels of emotionality in a person. In general, rational people "engage in deliberate reasoning by remaining calm and cool" (Maciejovsky et al., 2012) which means that these individuals make decisions plainly on facts and by thinking through the data shown or advertised in, for example commercials. Adding to the theory of a person's rationality, research states that rational behaviour is borne out of beliefs which are based on factual assumptions and common sense (Spohn, 2002). Therefore, the concept of rationality can be seen as the opposite of emotionality when it comes to not only the tone of advertisements but also the nature of people’s behaviour and perceptions.
These conclusions lead to the formation of another variable which is a combination of the levels of emotionality in advertisements and persons. In the following the concept of fit between levels of emotionality will be introduced and explained.
2.4. Fit between the Levels of Emotionality
the conclusion that people will react more positive towards rational ads if it fits their personal characteristics.
Furthermore, Geuens & De Pelsmacker (1999) found that emotional advertisement resonates well with emotional individuals but appropriate stimuli for rational people have not been researched thoroughly. This is reason enough to investigate the counterpart of high emotionality. These findings lead to the formation of the second hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: A fit between the levels of emotionalities increases the positive influence of emotional advertisements on attitude even more; more specifically highly emotional people have a higher attitude towards an emotional ad whereas less emotional people have a higher attitude towards a rational ad.
Figure 1 shows the conceptual model of this research and illustrates the relations among the presented variables more clearly.
Figure 1 - Conceptual Model
differences in respondents could be the simple factor that caused the unclear results in various studies over the years. How well emotional or non-emotional advertising is accepted by people can strongly depend on the level of emotionality in a person.
It is important to keep in mind that the factor that can be changed and adapted in the model is the nature of the advertisement. The choice of keeping it rational and without emotions to convince a customer or the choice of demonstrating a personal relation towards a product through emotional stimuli has to be made in advance and the necessary level of emotionality in the target audience has to be considered as well because together the variables may be able to influence brand attitude in a favourable manner.
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research Design
The main research design of this study was a survey combined with a within-subject design which means that a single questionnaire has been distributed online to observe an individual’s attitude towards both, an emotional and a rational advertisement (Charness et al., 2012). Additionally, the levels of emotionality in the shown advertisements and in a person were researched. The questionnaire was designed in a way that respondents had to fill in every question in order to continue to the next page.
3.2. Stimuli
As stimuli, two different soup advertisements were shown which are sought to be extremely contrasting in their level of emotionality. Stimulus 1 was the emotional advertisement (see Image 1) and stimulus 2 the rational one (see Image 2). By using soup advertisements for both stimuli the products lie in the same product category. Preferably, advertising stimuli would have been provided by the same brand to reduce previous brand associations but there were no advertisements for the same brand found that vary extremely in their level of emotionality. To overcome the issue of previously established brand associations the respondent was asked to indicate if they knew the brand already with hopes that the brand was relatively unknown and open for fresh associations.
In order to assure the appropriateness of the chosen advertisements as distinctly emotional or rational stimuli a pre-test has been conducted with ten participants ranking the level of emotionality on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is extremely rational and 10 extremely emotional. Indeed, assumptions could be confirmed. The supposedly emotional advertisement (see Image 1) was rated an 8.01 on the scale and the rational advertisement (see Image 2) scored a 1.8. Further, the advertisements lasted 15 seconds and 30 seconds respectively.
Image 2 - Stimulus 2, Screenshot
3.3. Participants
To gain a significant insight a total of 100 respondents filled in the online survey. The majority of the respondents were students due to the nature of this paper being written in a university environment.
3.4. Variables and Scaling
were used. Fernandez-Ballesteros et al (1997) came up with 13 questions identifying the emotionality or rationality of a person. On a 7-point scale respondents had to state among others if they “tend to experience [their] emotions intensely” and their “use [of] intelligence and reason to overcome conflicts or disagreements with other people” (Fernandez-Ballesteros et al, 1997). Further, the pre-test established that the emotional nature of the advertisements is distinctly different but in this research the fit between the levels of emotionality is measured. Hence, every respondent had to express their thoughts about the tone of the advertisement stimuli individually in order to provide scores which are used to measure the differences among the respondents. Ratchford (1987) and Williams & Drolet (2005) developed scales to question the emotionality of an advertisement as perceived by the viewer or respondent. Examples of presented statements were “Persuasion of the product is based mainly on feelings” and “The advertisement is mainly logical or objective” (Ratchford, 1987). To those existing scales a final question was added namely to simply rank the perceived level of emotionality in the advertisement on a 7 point scale. Finally, in order to determine the respondent’s attitude towards product in the advertisement ten 7-point scales were gathered and adapted from studies written by Theodoridis et al. (2013), Hepler & Albarracin (2013) and Derbaix & Pecheux (1999; 2003). They included statements like "I feel positive towards the advertisement" (Theodoridis, 2013) and "I believe what they show in the advertisement" (Derbaix & Pecheux, 2003). The complete questionnaire can be found in the Appendix.
3.5. Procedures
page leads to a concluding ‘thank-you’ message and provides the contact address again while the data is processed and saved.
3.6. Analysis
To begin with, many results could be drawn from the responses based on descriptive statistics and comparing the attitude and feelings towards the different stimuli. This gave information on general opinions.
In order to verify the individual’s impression of the tone of the advertisements, or the level of emotionality of the advertisements, two of the six corresponding scales were recoded. Starting with the scales for the first, emotional stimulus reliability analysis showed that one item “This advertisement made me focus on my thoughts about the product” had to be deleted in order to get a sufficient Cronbach’s alpha ( = 0.648, see Table 1). Ideally, alpha should lie above 0.7 but it is common practice to work with numbers close to that specific score (Nunnally, 1978). Next, for the variables determining the respondent’s perceived nature of the second, rational stimulus Cronbach’s alpha was most favourable after deleting one item as well ( = 0.672, see Table 1). This allowed for combining the five respective items into a variable. The first was named ‘Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 1’ and the second one ‘Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 2’.
In order to analyse the variables indicating the attitude towards the advertised brand, one item was recoded. Further, internal consistency was highest after deleting three of the ten items (Cronbach's = 0.915,see Table 1). As for the second, rational stimulus the procedure was the same. Cronbach’s alpha showed highest internal consistency ( = 0.907, see Table 1) after deleting the same three items. Hence, the remaining seven items were combined into one variable name ‘Attitude towards Stimulus 1’ and ‘Attitude towards Stimulus 2’, respectively. For these items it means that the higher the score the better is the respondents attitude towards the advertisement.
Table 1 - Cronbach's Alpha
In order to analyse the whole dataset in one model the sample was categorised according to the nature of the stimuli. One category was compiled with all 100 respondents and their ‘Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 1’ and ‘Attitude towards Stimulus 1’, the other category had the same respondents with their ‘Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 2’ and ‘Attitude towards Stimulus 2’. That way it was possible to analyse one model with three variables. These three variables are: the general ‘Emotionality Level of the Stimuli’ and the ‘Emotionality Level of Respondents’ where 1 is rational (non-emotional) and 7 is emotional, and the general ‘Attitude towards Stimuli’ which includes both stimuli, the emotional and the rational one, and where 1 is a negative attitude and 7 a positive attitude.
In order to get each respondent’s individual score for their level of fit when it comes to emotionality levels in their personality and the advertisement, the new variables had to be paired up. For each respondent the absolute value of the difference between the ‘Emotionality Level of the Stimuli’ and ‘Emotionality Level of Respondents’ was calculated. This variable was named ‘Fit between Levels of Emotionality’ ranging from 0 (or highest fit) to 6 (or lowest fit).
In the following chapters the data will be computed in order to test the previously posed hypotheses and discuss the findings in order to answer the research question.
Reliability Statistics
Variable Cronbach’s Alpha
Cronbach’s Alpha Based on Standardized Items
N of Items
Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 1
0.648 0.693 5
Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 2
0.672 0.681 5
Attitude towards Stimulus 1 0.915 0.919 7
Attitude towards Stimulus 2 0.907 0.912 7
Emotionality Level of Respondent
4. RESULTS
In total 138 individuals participated in the survey. However, 38 respondents stopped the survey before finishing it. Hence, the 100 completed surveys will be used to analyse the data compiled of 45 male participants and 55 female participants. 87% of the respondents fall in the age range between 18 and 30 years.
4.1. Familiarity with the Advertisement
Out of all 100 respondents, 19 were familiar with the first advertisement and none were familiar with the second advertisement. This means for the first and more emotional advertisement there are possibilities for prior associations. In order to determine that the 19 respondent’s answers were not significantly different from the rest of the respondents an independent-samples t test was performed (see Table 2). With the Levene's Test rejecting the hypothesis that the datasets are not equal (p > 0.05), equal variances are assumed. Respondents who knew the advertisement had overall the same scores on the perceived emotionality level of the stimulus (t(98) = -1.33, p = 0.185) and attitude towards the stimulus (t(98) = 0.86, p = 0.392). The homogeneity of variance is satisfied.
Independent Samples Test
Levene’s Test t-test for Equality of Means
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference Perceived Emotionality Level of Stimulus 1 0.112 0.738 -1.334 98 0.185 -0.243 0.182 Attitude Towards Stimulus 1 1.804 0.182 0.860 98 0.392 0.279 0.324
Table 2 - Familiarity with the Advertisement
4.2. Manipulation Check
second commercial shown more rational (M = 1.86, SD = 0.95) (see Table 3). These results are in line with the results from the pre-test.
Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Standard Deviation Stimulus 1 –
Emotionality Scale 100 2.00 7.00 5.89 0.95
Stimulus 2 –
Emotionality Scale 100 1.00 6.00 1.86 0.95
Table 3 - Manipulation Check
4.3. Hypothesis 1
In order to test the first hypothesis “Highly emotional advertisements have a higher influence on brand attitude than rational (less emotional) advertisements, no matter the fit of emotionality levels” it has to be found out if the attitudes towards the first, more emotional advertisement are more favourable than they are towards the second, less emotional advertisement. Prior to regression analysis and in order to get a preliminary overview, the means of the respondent’s attitudes towards both advertisements were computed and there was no distinctiveness of one attitude over the other (see Table 4). The average score for the attitude towards the emotional, stimulus 1 is 4.66 (SD = 1.27) and the average score for the attitude towards the less emotional, stimulus 2 is 4.80 (SD = 1.18).
Statistics
Attitude towards Stimulus 1 Attitude towards Stimulus 2
N Valid Missing 100 0 100 0 Mean 4.66 4.80 Std. Deviation 1.27 1.18
Table 4 - Hypothesis 1, Mean Statistics
significance level (p = 0.087, see Table 5) indicates that the model is marginally significant, at a 10% significance level.
Model Summary
Model
R R² Adjusted R² Std. Error of
the Estimate Sig. F Change
1 0.121 0.015 0.010 1.219 0.087
Table 5 - Hypothesis 1, Significance
The coefficients (Table 6) show that with a marginal significance the relation between the independent and dependent variable is negative (p = 0.087, B = -0.077, see Table 6). This indicates that by each unit that the advertisement gets more emotional the attitude goes down by –0.077. These results confirm with the slight difference in the computed means in Table 4 where the means for Stimulus 2 were marginally higher.
Coefficients
Unstandardised Coefficients
Standardised Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 5.034 0.196 25.647 0.000
Perceived
Emotionality Level of the Stimuli
-0.077 0.045 -0.121 -1.722 0.087
Table 6 - Hypothesis 1, Coefficients
Overall, the analysis shows that the hypothesis can be rejected. There is no indication that emotional advertisements have a stronger effect on attitude than rational advertisements. Additionally, the significance is too marginal to explicitly state observations that higher attitudes originate from less emotional advertisements.
4.4. Hypothesis 2
people have a higher attitude towards a rational ad” can be confirmed after conducting a regression analysis with all the variables. ‘Attitude towards Stimuli’ is the dependent variable and ‘Emotionality Level of the Stimuli’, ‘Emotionality Level of Respondents’, and Fit between Levels of Emotionality’ are included as independent variables in order to check the moderation effect of the latter variable. The first result is the significance of the model (p = 0.00, see Table 7). ANOVA Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 47.953 3 15.684 12.228 0.000* Residual 251.403 196 1.283 Total 298.456 199
Table 7 - Significance of the Model
Further, the coefficients (see Table 8) show not only that the moderator variable ‘Fit between Levels of Emotionality’ is significant (p = 0.00) but also that the independent variables 'Emotionality Level of the Stimuli’ (p = 0.345, B = 0.044) and ‘Emotionality Level of Respondents' (p = 0.118, B = -0.119) are not significant. The direction of the relation is negative as can be seen in the unstandardised coefficients (p = 0.000, B = -0.384, see Table 8). This means that for by each increased unit of the fit the attitude goes down by –0.384.
Coefficients
Unstandardised Coefficients
Standardised Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) 5.663 0.320 17.696 0.000
Perceived Emotionality
Level of the Stimuli 0.044 0.046 0.070 0.947 0.345
Emotionality Level of
Respondent -0.119 0.076 -0.105 -1.569 0.118
Fit between Levels of
Emotionality -0.384* 0.067 -0.428 -5.741 0.000
The negativity of the relation can be better illustrated and explained with the scatter plot below (see Graph 1). The graph explains why the relation is negative. A low score, close to 0, means that the fit between the levels of emotionality in advertisements and respondents is high. Hence, with a low score on the ‘Fit between Levels of Emotionality’ the ‘Attitude towards the Stimuli’ is high. Also, the information from the scatterplot shows that with this model 14.7% (R² = 0.147, see Graph 1) of the attitude towards the stimuli can be accounted for by the fit between the levels of emotionalities in the advertisements and respondents. This is 13.2% more than what was explained with the model for hypothesis 1 (R² = 0.015, see Table 5). Therefore, the direct effect of the emotionality level of the two stimuli on the attitude towards the stimuli is indeed moderated by the fit between the levels of emotionality in the advertisements and respondents.
4.5. Additional Exploratory Results
Another interesting result of this study is that gender stereotypes cannot be completely verifiedwhen it comes to emotionality. Linear regression analysis, with the emotionality level of respondents as dependent variable and gender as independent variable, showed that only 18,8% (R² = 0.188, see Table 9) of emotionality can be accounted for by gender. The adjusted R² of 0.179 is close to the first value which supports the finding and leads to the conclusion that although it is significant it is not a high percentage.
Model Summary
Model
R R² Adjusted R² Std. Error of
the Estimate Sig. F Change
1 0.433 0.188 0.179 9.979 0.000*
Table 9 - Gender Stereotypes
Furthermore, Table 10 shows that with the emotional advertisement 66% of the respondents are very aware of the persuasion effect the video is supposed to have (M = 5.06,
SD = 1.89, see Table 10) compared to the 25% who are aware of the persuasion effect of the second stimulus (M = 3.59, SD = 1.464, see Table 10). Also, out of all respondents, 78 were inclined to believe what was advertised in the rational advertisement (M = 2.93, SD = 1.52, see Table 10) compared to only 40 that believed in the emotional advertisement (M = 3.97,
SD = 1.845, see Table 10).
Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Persuasion Effect – Stimulus 1 100 5.06 1.890
Persuasion Effect – Stimulus 2 100 3.59 1.464
Believability – Stimulus 1 100 3.97 1.845
Believability – Stimulus 2 100 5.07 1.519
Table 10 - Exploratory Descriptive Statistics
5. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION 5.1. Conclusions
The goal of this research paper was to discover the benefits of a fit between the level of emotionality in a person and the level of emotionality in an advertisement and how this fit affects brand attitude. More specifically, the research question was: “How does the fit of emotionality levels in advertisements and persons influence brand attitude?” This study found that there is indeed a fit of emotionalities and it does have an effect on attitude. Hence, trying to get the best of both worlds (emotionally) is not always the best way to go!
Moreover, the finding that an emotional advertisement does not necessarily lead to higher attitude towards the advertisement and subsequently the brand, or that a rational advertisement might be marginally more effective in terms of attitude, can be explained by theories that favour rational advertisements over emotional ones when it comes to superior attitude (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999; Slade, 2002; Page & Brewster, 2007) by stating for example that "people are seeking rational information for decision-making" (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999). However, there are also some studies that simply comply with the fact that there is not one single best way (Heath, 2011) and that next to rational appeals "emotional appeals should be included as well" (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999). And others reason that emotional or rational advertisements each have their advantages in eliciting a higher attitude depending on the customer’s involvement with the advertised product (Pickett et al., 2001). Nonetheless, these diverse theories show that there is not one single way to secure the most positive attitude response in consumers. Walking a fine line between emotionality and just enough rationality to please the mainstream customer can easily lead to the wrong targeting. Previous research points out that mixed advertisement with both rational and emotional appeals “may distort the message and confuse the receiver" (Leonidou & Leonidou, 2009). This leads to the next hypothesis, where the respondent’s personality is included in the mix.
The concept of gender, which was merely used in the beginning to explain how differences in people affect the attitudes someone has towards an advertisement, adds some interesting exploratory results as well. Many researchers were able to draw connections between emotionality and gender (Robinson & Clore, 2002; Chaplin & Aldao, 2012) but findings in this study concluded differently. Only 18.8% of emotionality was explained by gender based on recent literature, Cramphorn (2011) suggests that advertisements specifically tailored towards men or women are more effective. Apparently, a recent meta-analysis is more accurate since it showed that "the degree of stereotyping has decreased over the years" (Eisend, 2010). Combined with the results of this study it is believed that stereotyping is more and more a thing of the past. The results of this study cannot be based on stereotypes when it comes to emotionality and gender.
Another exploratory finding of the data suggests that the rational advertisement was more believable than the emotional ad which supports previously mentioned theories about the objectivity and credibility of rational ads (Janssens & De Pelsmacker, 2005). These findings are consistent with Leonidou & Leonidou (2009) who state that rational or informative advertisements usually have higher ad credibility. Additionally, this study shows respondents feel that the more emotional advertisement is aimed more at persuasion than the rational ad indicating that informative content seems more honest than the emotional content which oftentimes want “to schmooze the consumer" (Heath, 2011) or converse them.
5.2. Managerial Implications
The results of this study gave some interesting insights when it comes to the right advertisement for the right customer. Since managers should always be keen to gather new advice on targeting customers, this study might provide them with valuable information. In order to prevent false targeting marketers should really know their preferred target customers and then accurately reduce either redundant emotionality or rationality in their advertisements in order to adapt the nature of the ad to the target group’s overall level of emotionality. This increases the risk of losing some of the mainstream audience but in turn opens the possibility for gaining customers that are more likely to grow attached to the brand because they have an above average attitude towards the product compared to their mainstream counterparts. In the long run, this can lead to increased loyalty towards the product and higher profitability for the company.
women are not just affected by emotionality either. Moreover, managers have to be smart about persuading the customer without overdoing it. Informative content helps to support believability but it might also reduce the attitude of an emotional viewer. Therefore, the managers behind advertisements are better off targeting the right customer and finding out if they want to be persuaded or if they prefer to make up their opinions based on “logical and rational decisions about products" (Page & Brewster, 2007).
5.3. Limitations and Further Research
While this study had some valuable and interesting results there is still room for improvement and suggestions for concepts that might be appealing to look at for further research. Care should always be given to the stimuli. As pointed out previously, the two stimuli were indeed in the same product category, namely soups, but ultimately different brands. In order to increase the control over the stimuli and reduce possible existing brand associations, future research should include stimuli from the same brand. Also, research should be conducted in a different product category to verify this study’s results and to broaden the pool of advice for managers. Using various categories will enable researchers to generalise findings.
The procedure of the research was done with utmost care, especially with regard to the questionnaire. Precautions were taken, for example activating the setting that respondents were not able to correct their answers. However, in every survey the emotional advertisement was received more open-mindedly because it was shown first whereas the second, less emotional stimuli could automatically be compared to the first. In order to investigate whether this had an actual influence on the results future research could vary the order of stimuli or apply 'between-subject designs' (Charness et al., 2012).
Additionally, as it has been pointed out in the beginning, that there are different reactions towards advertisements depending on the respondent’s level of involvement with the product (Pickett et al., 2001). This has not been researched in this paper. Therefore, it is suggested that future research takes this concept into account by researching attitudes towards advertisements and brands with different levels of involvement and emotionality in both advertisement and personality of the respondent.
6. REFERENCES
Aaker, D.A. & Bruzzone, D.E. (1985). Causes of irritation in advertising. Journal of
Marketing 49, 47-57.
Aaker, D. A.,Stayman, D. M., & Hagerty, M.R. (1986). Warmth in Advertising: Measurements, Impact, and Sequence Effects. Journal of Consumer Research 12(4), 365-381
Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1997). Attitude-Behavior Relations: A Theoretical Analysis and Review of Empirical Research. Psychological Bulletin, 84(5), 888-918.
Albers-Miller, N. D., & Stafford, M. (1999). An international analysis of emotional and rational appeals in services vs goods advertising. Journal Of Consumer Marketing, 16(1), 42-57.
Bass, F. M., & Talarzyk, W. (1972). An Attitude Model for the Study of Brand Preference.
Journal Of Marketing Research (JMR), 9(1), 93-96.
Browne, K. (2005). Snowball Sampling: Using Social Networks to Research Non- heterosexual Women. International Journal Of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 47-60.
Carretié, L., Hinojosa, J. A., Martín-Loeches, M., Mercado, F., & Tapia, M. (2004). Automatic Attention to Emotional Stimuli: Neural Correlates. Human Brain Mapping, 22(4), 290-299.
Chaplin, T. M., & Aldao, A. (2012). Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Children: A Meta-Analytic Review. Psychological Bulletin.
Charness, G., Gneezy, U., & Kuhn, M. A. (2012). Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design. Journal Of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(1), 1-8.
Cornelis, E., Adams, L., & Cauberghe, V. (2012). The effectiveness of regulatory (in)congruent ads: The moderating role of an ad's rational versus emotional tone.
Cotte, J., Coulter, R. A., & Moore, M. (2005). Enhancing or disrupting guilt: the role of ad credibility and perceived manipulative intent. Journal Of Business Research, 58(3), 361-368.
Cramphorn, M. F. (2011). Gender effects in advertising. International Journal Of Market
Research, 53(2), 147-170.
Dawes, J. (2008). Do data characteristics change according to the number of scale points used?. International Journal Of Market Research, 50(1), 61-77.
Derbaix, C., & Pecheux, C. (1999). Children and Attitude toward the Brand: A New Measurement Scale. Journal Of Advertising Research, 39(4), 19-27.
Derbaix, C., & Pecheux, C. (2003). A New Scale to Assess Children's Attitude toward TV Advertising. Journal Of Advertising Research, 43(4), 390-399.
DeSteno, D., Gross, J. J., & Kubzansky, L. (2013). Affective science and health: The importance of emotion and emotion regulation. Health Psychology, 32(5), 474-486.
Eagly, A. (2007). THE ADVANTAGES OF AN INCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE. Social Cognition, 25(5), 582-602.
Eisend, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of gender roles in advertising. Journal Of The Academy
Of Marketing Science, 38(4), 418-440.
Ewing, M. T. (2013). The Good News About Television: Attitudes Aren't Getting Worse: Tracking Public Attitudes toward TV Advertising. Journal Of Advertising Research, 53(1), 83-89.
Faircloth, J. B., Capella, L. M., & Alford, B. L. (2001). THE EFFECT OF BRAND ATTITUDE AND BRAND IMAGE ON BRAND EQUITY. Journal Of Marketing Theory &
Fernandez-Ballesteros, R., Zamarrón, M., Ruiz, M., Sebastian, J., & Spielberger, C. D. (1997). Assessing emotional expression: Spanish adaptation of the Rationality/Emotional Defensiveness Scale. Personality And Individual Differences, 22(5), 719-729.
Fetterman, A. K., & Robinson, M. D. (2013). Do You Use Your Head or Follow Your Heart? Self-Location Predicts Personality, Emotion, Decision Making, and Performance. Journal Of
Personality And Social Psychology.
Fisher, R. J., & Dubé, L. (2005). Gender Differences in Responses to Emotional Advertising: A Social Desirability Perspective. Journal Of Consumer Research, 31(4), 850-858.
Friestad, M., & Thorson, E. (1986). EMOTION-ELICITING ADVERTISING: EFFECTS ON LONG TERM MEMORY AND JUDGMENT. Advances In Consumer Research, 13(1), 111-116.
Gbadamosi, A., Hinson, R. E., Tukamushaba, E. K., & Ingunjiri, I. (2012). Children's attitudinal reactions to TV advertisements. International Journal Of Market Research, 54(4), 543-566.
Geuens, M., & De Pelsmacker, P. (1999). Affect intensity revisited: Individual differences and the communication effects of emotional stimuli. Psychology & Marketing, 16(3), 195-209.
Green, P. E., & Rao, V. R. (1970). Rating Scales and Information Recovery--How Many Scales and Response Categories to Use?. Journal Of Marketing, 34(3), 33-39.
Grossman, M., & Wood, W. (1993). Sex differences in intensity of emotional experience: A social role interpretation. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 65(5), 1010-1022.
Hepler, J., & Albarracín, D. (2013). Attitudes Without Objects: Evidence for a Dispositional Attitude, Its Measurement, and Its Consequences. Journal Of Personality And Social
Psychology.
Hirsh, J. B., Kang, S. K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2012). Personalized Persuasion: Tailoring Persuasive Appeals to Recipients’ Personality Traits. Psychological Science (Sage
Publications Inc.), 23(6), 578-581.
Janssens, W., & De Pelsmacker, P. (2005). Emotional or informative? Creative or boring?.
International Journal Of Advertising, 24(3), 373-394.
Kemp, E., Bui, M., & Chapa, S. (2012). The role of advertising in consumer emotion management. International Journal Of Advertising, 31(2), 339-353.
Kenworthy, J. B., & Miller, N. (2002). Attributional biases about the origins of attitudes: Externality, emotionality and rationality. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology,
82(5), 693-707.
Khan Niazi, M., Ghani, U., & Aziz, S. (2012). The Emotionally Charged Advertisements and their Influence on Consumers Attitudes. International Journal Of Business and Social
Science, 3(1), 307-320.
Lench, H. C., Flores, S. A., & Bench, S. W. (2011). Discrete emotions predict changes in cognition, judgment, experience, behavior, and physiology: A meta-analysis of experimental emotion elicitations. Psychological Bulletin, 137(5), 834-855.
Leonidou, L. C., & Leonidou, C. N. (2009). Rational Versus Emotional Appeals in Newspaper Advertising: Copy, Art, and Layout Differences. Journal Of Promotion
Management, 15(4), 522-546.
Lindquist, K. A., Gendron, M., Oosterwijk, S., & Barrett, L. (2013). Do People Essentialize Emotions? Individual Differences in Emotion Essentialism and Emotional Experience.
Lindquist, K. A., Siegel, E. H., Quigley, K. S., & Barrett, L. (2013). The hundred-year emotion war: Are emotions natural kinds or psychological constructions? Comment on Lench, Flores, and Bench (2011). Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 255-263.
Maciejovsky, B., Schwarzenberger, H., & Kirchler, E. (2012). Rationality versus Emotions: The Case of Tax Ethics and Compliance. Journal Of Business Ethics, 109(3), 339-350.
Manrai, L. A., Broach, J., & Manrai, A. K. (1992). Advertising Appeal and Tone: Implications for Creative Strategy in Television Commercials. Journal Of Business Research,
25(1), 43-58.
Mehta, A., & Purvis, S. C. (2006). Reconsidering Recall and Emotion in Advertising. Journal
Of Advertising Research, 46(1), 49-56.
Mitchell, A. A. (1986). The Effect of Verbal and Visual Components of Advertisements on Brand Attitudes and Attitude Toward the Advertisement. Journal Of Consumer Research,
13(1), 12-24.
Niazi, M., Ghani, U., & Aziz, S. (2012). THE EMOTIONALLY CHARGED ADVERTISEMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON CONSUMERS' ATTITUDES.
International Journal Of Business & Social Science, 3(1), 307-320.
Nielsen, J., Shapiro, S., & Mason, C. (2010). Emotionality and Semantic Onsets: Exploring Orienting Attention Responses in Advertising. Journal Of Marketing Research (JMR), 47(6), 1138-1150.
Nunnally, J.C. (1978). Psychometric Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Page, R. M., & Brewster, A. (2007). Emotional and rational product appeals in televised food advertisements for children: Analysis of commercials shown on US broadcast networks.
Journal Of Child Health Care, 11(4), 323-340.
Pickett, G.M., Grove, S.J. & Laband, D.N. (2001) The impact of product type and parity on the informational content of advertising. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 9(3), pp. 32-43
Rao, V. (2010). Viewer Responses to Television Commercials-an Indian Perspective.
Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal Of Management, 7(1), 103-122.
Ratchford, B. T. (1987). NEW INSIGHTS ABOUT THE FCB GRID. Journal Of Advertising
Research, 27(4), 24-38.
Robinson, M. D., & Clore, G. L. (2002). Belief and Feeling: Evidence for an Accessibility Model of Emotional Self-Report. Psychological Bulletin, 128(6), 934.
Romaniuk, J. (2012). Lifting the Productivity of TV Advertising. Journal Of Advertising
Research, 52(2), 146-148.
Rydell, A., Berlin, L., & Bohlin, G. (2003). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and adaptation among 5- to 8-year-old children. Emotion, 3(1), 30-47.
Shimp, T. A. (1981). ATTITUDE TOWARD THE AD AS A MEDIATOR OF CONSUMER BRAND CHOICE. Journal Of Advertising, 10(2), 9-48.
Slade, C. (2002). Reasons to Buy: The Logic of Advertisements. Argumentation: An
International Journal On Reasoning, 16(2), 157-178.
Spohn, W. (2002). The Many Facets of the Theory of Rationality. Croatian Journal Of
Theodoridis, P. K., Kyrousi, A. G., Zotou, A. Y., & Panigyrakis, G. G. (2013). Male and female attitudes towards stereotypical advertisements: a paired country investigation.
Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(1), 135-160.
Tsung-Chi, L., & Chung-Yu, W. (2008). Factors affecting attitudes toward private labels and promoted brands. Journal Of Marketing Management, 24(3/4), 283-298.
WILLIAMS, P., & DROLET, A. (2005). Age-Related Differences in Responses to Emotional Advertisements. Journal Of Consumer Research, 32(3), 343-354.
Wood, O. (2012). How Emotional Tugs Trump Rational Pushes: The Time Has Come to Abandon a 100-Year-Old Advertising Model. Journal Of Advertising Research, 52(1), 31-39.
Zielske, H. A. (1982). Does Day-After Recall Penalize "Feeling" Ads?. Journal Of
7. APPENDIX Online Questionnaire
--- Page 1 --- Welcome,
Thank you for taking the time to help me with my Master-Thesis. As a marketing student I decided to research various effects of television advertisements and your answers are needed to support my theories. The questionnaire will take approximately 5 minutes and is
completely anonymous. Please take your time to read the questions carefully and answer them honestly.
If there are any questions do not hesitate to contact me: n.s.schaperklaus@student.rug.nl
Your help is much appreciated! Nina Schaperklaus
--- Page 2 ---
Stimuli 1 – Emotional Advertisement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doA05liO3QM
Questions about the attitude towards the ad:
(Scale from 1, Strongly Disagree, to 7, Strongly Agree)
I like the advertisement
I think the product is of good quality I feel positive towards the advertisement The advertised product is something that I like I think this product is good
I think this product is useful
I think the advertisement persuades you to buy things you don't need I believe what they show in the advertisement
I think the advertisement is boring I think the advertisement is funny
Questions about the level of emotionality of the ad: (Scale from 1, Strongly Disagree, to 7, Strongly Agree)
In this advertisement functional attributes are most important Persuasion of the product is based mainly on feelings
The advertisement is mainly logical or objective
This advertisement is directed at making me feel something about the product This advertisement made me focus on my thoughts about the product
How emotional did you perceive the advertisement
--- Page 3 --- Personal/Controlling Questions Gender Male Female Age
26 to 30 years old 31 to 35 years old 36 to 40 years old 41 to 45 years old over 45 years old
Education
none
secondary school
university but no degree yet bachelor master PhD other Occupation not employed employed self-employed student retired other Living Status Alone Flat sharing With partner
--- Page 4 ---
Stimuli 2 – Rational Advertisement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpgz6K4MDCg
Are you familiar with the brand advertised in the commercial? (Y/N)
Questions about the attitude towards the ad:
(Scale from 1, Strongly Disagree, to 7, Strongly Agree)
I like the advertisement
I think the product is of good quality I feel positive towards the advertisement The advertised product is something that I like I think this product is good
I think this product is useful
I think the advertisement persuades you to buy things you don't need I believe what they show in the advertisement
Questions about the level of emotionality of the ad: (Scale from 1, Strongly Disagree, to 7, Strongly Agree)
In this advertisement functional attributes are most important Persuasion of the product is based mainly on feelings
The advertisement is mainly logical or objective
This advertisement is directed at making me feel something about the product This advertisement made me focus on my thoughts about the product
How emotional did you perceive the advertisement
--- Page 5 ---
Questions about personality
(Scale from 1, Always, to 7, Never)
I try to do what it sensible and logical
I try to understand people and their behaviour I tend to experience my emotions intensely
I try to behave reasonably in my relations with others
I use intelligence and reason to overcome conflicts or disagreements with other people When I am in a situation in which I strongly disagree with other people, I try not to show my emotions
If someone deeply hurts my feelings, I still try to treat them reasonably and to understand their behaviour
I try to understand other people even if I do not like them
I succeed in avoiding arguments with others by using reason and logic (often contrary to my feelings)
If someone acts against my needs and desires, I still try to understand them
My behaviour in most life situations is logical and reasonable, and not influenced by my emotions
If someone deeply hurts my feelings, I may attack them or respond purely emotionally My use of reason and logic prevents me from confronting others, even if there are good reasons for doing so
