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THE INFLUENCE OF AWE ON MESSAGE RECEPTION

AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY

University of Groningen

Faculty of Business and Economics

MSc Marketing Management

First Supervisor: Dr. Yannick Joye

Second Supervisor: Dr. Mehrad Moeini

Fabrizio Pinci

S 3182320

Helper Oostsingel 18

9722 AT Groningen

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PREFACE

This dissertation is the last step of my journey at the University of Groningen and of my satisfying academic career. However, I am aware of the fact that such an accomplishment does not represent an ending point, but rather the basis to take on the future challenges with the right attitude and ambition. During this year, I strengthened my capabilities in the marketing field, but I know that improving as a person is an everlasting goal.

I would like to thank my supervisor dr. Yannick Joye for the professional dedication he provided me in the development of my master thesis and my second supervisor dr. Mehrad Moeini for his help. Mostly, I want to express my immeasurable gratitude to my family, for their constant support, my friends and all the people who supported me and made me the man I am today.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

PREFACE ... 2 ABSTRACT ... 4 INTRODUCTION ... 4 LITERATURE ... 6 Nonsensical Messages ... 6 Message Reception ... 7 Awe ... 8

Need for Cognitive Closure (NFCC) ... 10

Aesthetic Sensitivity ... 11 Conceptual Model ... 12 Hypotheses ... 12 METHODS ... 13 Participants ... 13 Design... 13 Materials ... 13 Procedure ... 16 RESULTS ... 17 Manipulation Check ... 17

Environmental Condition and Emotions ... 17

Awesome Nature on Willingness to Pay and Message Reception ... 17

Mediation Analysis ... 20

Moderation Analysis ... 22

Additional Research - Intelligence and Art Interest... 22

DISCUSSION ... 23

Summary of Findings ... 23

Limitations ... 24

Implication for Future Research ... 25

Managerial Implications ... 26

FOOTNOTES. ... 27

REFERENCE... 27

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ABSTRACT

One of the main challenges for marketers is to understand how people react and process marketing messages. Emotions play a fundamental role in consumers’ behaviour, particularly in the field of information processing. The aim of this research is to investigate the role of awe, a discrete positive emotion, on individuals’ levels of message reception and willingness to pay for consumer goods that were described by either factual and nonsensical messages. Results showed that awestruck consumers have a marginal positive reception for factual messages. However, there is no influence on their willingness to pay. Furthermore, the mediating role of the need for cognitive closure and the moderating role of aesthetic sensitivity have been investigated, yielding no significant results.

INTRODUCTION

«...it is the Infinite, so I slash this canvas that was the basis of all the Arts, and so I created an endless dimension, a hole that for me represents all the contemporary art, to those who want to understand. Otherwise, go on saying that it is just a hole, and stop».

With this sentence Lucio Fontana, an Italian painter, described the most popular and debated of his works, Concetto spaziale. Attesa (Spatial Concept. Waiting, 1958-1698). It is no more than a canvas with a single slash in its middle, but it is regarded as one of the main artworks of contemporary art. However, with his words Fontana highlighted the two sides of a struggling question. Art and its vague descriptions are, indeed, put side by side with two opposing opinions: they could be regarded as brilliant or meaningless.

Nowadays, arts and aesthetics have many commercial applications. With the phenomenon called “art infusion”, clues of visual art are used in the contexts of packaging, advertising, and product design to improve the evaluation of consumer products (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008). In this commercial application, the sensory component is often combined with vague, pseudo-profound messages. Thus, it is important for marketers to investigate the reception of these messages and to test how large their amount of persuasiveness and effectiveness is (Chakraborty & Harbaugh, 2014; Pennycook et al., 2015; Rotfeld & Rotzoll, 1980).

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5 1986). Current research is focusing on discrete types of emotions, asserting that they may affect individuals’ cognition in different ways even though they have the same valence. For instance, Bodenhausen, Sheppard and Kramer (1994) compared subjects in anger and sadness in a persuasion situation, discovering that the former rely more on heuristic cues. Moreover, contrarily to the effect of nurturant love, the positive emotion of amusement facilitated greater acceptance of weak persuasive messages (Griskevicius, Shiota & Neufeld, 2010).

Among these discrete positive emotions, there is awe. It is characterized by two main appraisals, vastness and need for accommodation, and it can be elicited by being in front of great nature, extraordinary events, exceptional ability, skills and talent (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Furthermore, awe has been used for business purposes: during its last fashion show in Paris, Chanel set up the launch of a spacecraft in the middle of the Grand Palais, evoking a great awe-inspiring experience.

There is still little theoretical contribution concerning the influence of awe on message reception and the subsequent consumer’s response. However, existing literature gives us some clues. For instance, researchers have asserted that awe makes people more tolerant towards uncertainty, mystery and spirituality (Saroglou, Buxant & Tilquin, 2008; Bonner & Friedman, 2011). Still, it induces reflective and systematic processing (Griskevicius, Shiota & Neufeld, 2010).

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LITERATURE

Nonsensical Messages

Arts have always tried to share a deeper meaning beyond their pure factual aspect. During the 20th century, several artistic trends start spreading, like surrealism, abstract art and pop art. The purpose of these post-modern and contemporary arts was representing the relationship of the man with himself and with the world around him. For this reason, artworks have often been combined with messages and information, whose purpose was to help the viewer in understanding their deeper meaning. However, these descriptions sounded often vacuous and ambiguous, like the description Fontana gave to his painting. Opinions about these kinds of art, indeed, are divergent: on the one hand, there are those who get the meaning behind the factual representation, on the other, those who believe that they are just nonsense.

Nowadays, marketers exploit nonsense and ambiguity in their marketing messages. Through the so-called puffery advertising sellers use vague and subjective claims to influence consumers (Chakraborty & Harbaugh, 2014). Puffery is defined by the Federal Trade Commission as the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined. For instance, during the pre-purchase stage, the use of puffery can attract more consumers by creating a product expectation that exceeds the product evaluation after its consumption (Toncar & Fetscherin, 2012).

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7 The current research focuses on artworks and their descriptions. Several studies found that the type of title drawn close to visual art can influence the perceived aesthetic experience (Leder, Carbon & Ripsas, 2006). Particularly, metaphorical titles lead to greater aesthetic experience than either no title or descriptive titles (Millis, 2001). This effect performs regardless of whether participants believed the titles to be true or false (Millis, 2001). Furthermore, aesthetic quality itself is shown to be significantly related to purchase intention (Hall & Hanna, 2004), making the reception of artistic messages an interesting marketing topic to be studied.

Message Reception

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Awe

In the chaotic sea of discrete positive emotions, awe distinguishes itself as one of the most interesting and complex. It is described by Otto as “a harmony of contrasts; it is at once daunting, and yet again singularly attracting, in its impress upon the mind. It humbles and at the same time exalts us, circumscribes and extends us beyond ourselves, on the one hand releasing in us a feeling analogous to fear, and on the other rejoicing us” (1958, page 42). Recently, research on awe, and how it influences people’s mind and behaviour, has substantially increased. Keltner and Haidt (2003) created a cognitive model of awe defining it as an emotion characterized by two principal appraisals. The first one is vastness, described as “anything that is experienced as being much larger than the self, or the self’s ordinary level of experience or frame of reference” (p. 303). Vastness is not only about physical size. It also correlates with the concept of power, for instance, when we are astounded by the actions of charismatic leaders. The second appraisal, called need for accommodation, pertains to the difficulty when someone is assimilating new experiences. Awe “involves a challenge to or negation of mental structures when they fail to make sense of an experience of something vast” (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). However, vastness and need for accommodation are not sufficient for a complete picture of awe. Even though it is regarded as a positive emotion, its effects and its valence could be both positive and negative, depending on the particular secondary appraisal, or “flavour”, that takes place during an event. These flavours are namely: threat, beauty, ability, virtue and supernatural (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). For example, a frightening thunderstorm and a calming landscape make us awestruck in the same way, although in a different valence.

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9 Several studies provide supporting findings for the current research. According to Valdesolo and Graham (2013), awe has a certain influence on tolerance for uncertainty and mystery and, consequently, it increases paranormal beliefs and the tendency to judge random events as driven by intentional (non-) human agents. Yet, awe is mainly associated with openness, described in the work of Bonner and Friedman (2011) as a precondition of awe that makes people more likely to accept uncertainty, moving them to a deeper understanding. People are shown to be less craving for cognitive closure, that is the willingness to arrive at definite conclusions and eliminate ambiguity (Shiota, Keltner & Mossman, 2007). Furthermore, they are more comfortable with revising their mental schemas about the world, creating new ones if necessary (Shiota, Keltner & Mossman, 2007). With this premise, it could be reasonable to assume that awe makes people react positively toward ambiguous and pseudo-profound messages.

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10 study is justified by the influence of visual art on product evaluation throughout the so called “art infusion” phenomenon. When these evaluations are positive, indeed, it is more likely to have consumers with high purchase intentions (Kim & Lee, 2012).

Need for Cognitive Closure (NFCC)

Some people have a strong desire for definite knowledge and an aversion to ambiguity and confusion. This is determined by a cognitive motivational factor, namely the Need for Cognitive Closure (NFCC), theorised by a Polish social psychologist, Arie W. Kruglanski. Its effects flow from two general tendencies: the urgency tendency, expressing the urgency to achieve the closure as soon as possible, and the permanence tendency, representing the need to maintain it for as long as possible (Kruglanski & Webster, 1996).

In 1992, Shalom H. Schwartz developed a theory in the field of intercultural research. His theory of the Basic Human Values identified ten universal values that are common to all the major cultures. An empirical research demonstrated that NFCC is negatively associated with two of those values, namely Stimulation and Self-Direction. The former represents excitement, novelty, and challenge in life. The latter is characterized by independent thought and action-choosing, creating and exploring (Calogero, Bardi & Sutton, 2009). Finally, Berenbaum, Bredemeier and Thompson (2008) performed a statistical analysis exploring the dimensionality of the Intolerance for Uncertainty Scale, founding several positive associations with the NFCC.

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11 In addition to rationality, NFCC levels influence creativity. Individuals reflecting high levels of NFCC performed less creative activities (Rocchi, 1988). Furthermore, this inverse relationship has been confirmed also on a group level. Chirumbolo et al. (2004) found that groups composed of subjects high in NFCC performed less creatively, and exhibited less ideational fluidity during group interaction. Finally, this influence is also evident in aesthetic preferences, where high-NFCC (rather than low) individuals prefer figurative paintings to abstract paintings (Wiersema, Van Der Schalk and Kleef, 2012).

Following this information, it is possible to suppose that low levels of NFCC, as consequence of awe experience, lead people to be more comfortable with ambiguity resulting in a more positive attitude toward nonsensical messages.

Aesthetic Sensitivity

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12 10%), neither including previous artistic training (Frois & Eysenck, 1995). Current research, however, suggests a possible correlation between aesthetic sensitivity and personality traits, in particular with openness to experience and tendency to divergent thinking (Furnham & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004; Furnham & Walker, 2001; McCrae, 2007; Myszkowski et al. 2014). Correspondingly, it could be hypothesized that aesthetic sensitivity works as a moderator of the influence of awe on message reception in an artistic context. Thus, when people are more sensitive to the beauty and to the meaning beyond the pure material object they are more likely to perceive positively abstract paintings and pseudo-profound messages.

Conceptual Model

Hypotheses

H1: Awe positively influences nonsensical messages reception, and enhances consumers’ willingness to pay for arts.

H2a: Awe decreases levels of NFCC.

H2b: Lower levels of NFCC result in a higher acceptance of nonsense messages and higher willingness to pay

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METHODS

Participants

Two hundred and two subjects participated in this study. The 67.4% of the participants were between 18 and 34 years old. The sample was mostly equal for the gender (42.7% of female). Only 102 participants completed the survey. Of these, we regarded as useful for the research only those who completed the survey in 60 minutes, so that the final sample used for the analysis included 89 respondents. The average income (including any kind of allowance) was around €500-800 and participants’ nationality was mostly Italian (25.8%), German (13.5%) and Dutch (12.4%) with a Bachelor’s degree (48.3%).

Design

The study was designed with the online survey platform Qualtrics1. The study had a between subject design 2 (awesome vs. mundane) by 2 (factual vs. nonsense) factorial design and message reception and willingness to pay were the dependent variables. Willingness to pay was examined for two conditions: artworks with either a factual message or a nonsense message.

Materials

Manipulation of awe. Following previous research, awe was manipulated with movies of nature

settings. Participants had to watch one of two possible videos displaying either grand nature or mundane nature. Both videos have been taken from Youtube and embedded on Qualtrics. They lasted 3 minutes each and the subjects had the possibility to watch them on full screen. In the grand nature condition (N = 41), the video showed vast natural scenes or phenomena (e.g., glaciers, a mountain range, a waterfall, a huge iceberg) that are scarcely faced during the every-day routine, whereas the mundane nature condition (N = 48) consisted of a video of non-spectacular, fairly mundane nature (e.g., a forest setting).

Emotion measurement. To test whether the videos had elicited awe and how people felt while

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14 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree). Then, subjects rated four sentences to measure the feeling of smallness they felt while waching the video: “I felt the presence of something greater than myself”, “I felt small or insignificant”, “I felt small or insignificant”, “I felt part of some greater entity”, “I felt like I was in the presence of something grand” (1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree; total Cronbach alpha = 0.747). All the questions have been randomized within the scale.

Message. Participants were randomly exposed to two different messages, varying in the degree of

nonsense, combined with an abstract artwork (Figure 1). The first one is a factual message about the origin of the artwork, “Spatial Concept, Waiting is one of a series of works Fontana made in Milan between 1958 and 1968. These works, which all consist of a canvas that has been cut either once or multiply, are collectively known as the Tagli ('cuts'). Each cut was made with a single gesture using a sharp blade, and the canvases were then backed with strong black gauze giving the appearance of a void behind.”. The second concerns an abstract nonsensical description of the artwork’s meaning, “Spatial Concept, Waiting is about the discovery of the hole and that's it… …it is the Infinite regressing in itself, brought about by the painter slashing the canvas. The work represents the womb of all the Arts, and so creates an endless dimension of emptiness, a hole that represents and internally trans-(c)ends all the contemporary art, to those who want to understand”.

Message reception and Willingness to pay. After being exposed to one of the message conditions,

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15 Figure 1. Abstract paintings – Lucio Fontana, Spatial concept. Waiting

Aesthetic sensitivity measurement. To measure participants’ aesthetic sensitivity, we used a subscale

of the Engagement with Beauty Scale (EBS), developed by Diessner et al. (2008). The original scale measures the engagement with natural, artistic and moral beauty. We only utilized the second subscale about artistic beauty (Cronbach alpha = 0.781). Participants rated four statements concerning their experience with arts. Sample items are: “When perceiving beauty in a work of art I feel changes in my body, such as a lump in my throat, an expansion in my chest, faster heartbeat, or other bodily responses.”, “When perceiving beauty in a work of art I feel emotional, it “moves me,” such as feeling a sense of awe, or wonder or excitement or admiration or upliftment” (1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree) (see Appendix B for full scale). All the questions have been randomized within the scale.

Need For Cognitive Closure measurement. In order to analyse the need for cognitive closure of the

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16 enjoy having a clear and structured mode of life”. All the questions have been randomized within the scale.

Intelligence. Although the literature stated that QI does not affect the aesthetic judgement, we decided

to control this variable because in early studies its influence accounted for up to 10%. To measure the intelligence of respondentes, we used the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) developed by Frederick (2005). It is based on three questions that have the power to generate incorrect intuitive answers. Sample question is “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” (see Appendix D). An intelligence score has been created considering the number of correct answers. In addition, we asked for participants’ level of education. All the questions have been randomized within the scale.

Art Interest. Furthertmore, we decided to check the influence of art interest. To test wether the effect

of the interest in art exists, we presented the subjects a 9 items scale (Cronbach alpha = 0.915) used by Leder, Carbon and Ripsas (2006) in their study. Subjects rated the items on a range from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree (see Appendix E). Examples of items are: “I visit events on art or art history in my leisure time or because of my studies”, “I always seek new artful impressions and experiences” and “I enjoy reading articles written by artists or about art in general”. All the questions have been randomized within the scale.

Procedure

The study began with a general briefing about the purpose of study, after which we asked for participants’ age, gender, nationality, education and socio-economic status. Then, we tested their intelligence and checked their aesthetic sensitivity. Following this, participants were randomly exposed to either the grand nature condition or the mundane nature condition, consisting of viewing of a video lasting three minutes. They were asked to imagine that they were in the shown environments. Also, we put a time condition so that they could skip the video only after 2 minutes. Thus, we tried to assure the viewing of the video. Subsequently, we measured the emotions they felt while watching the video.

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RESULTS

Manipulation Check

Environmental Condition and Emotions

A one-way between subjects ANOVA has been conducted to compare the effect of exposition to the environmental conditions on different levels of emotions experience. The two environmental conditions were represented by awesome nature and mundane nature. Results have been summarized in Table 1. We found a significant positive influence on Awe, Anger, Fear and Smallness showing that people felt these emotions in a greater extent while watching the awesome video. However, Amusement, Disgust, Sadness and Happiness resulted in a not significant effect. In summary, the manipulation check worked and the emotion of awe was elicited properly.

Emotion df F Sign. Mundane Awesome

M SD M SD Awe 1,87 4.672 0.033 4.08 1.686 4.88 1.778 Anger 1,87 6.439 0.013 1.42 0.871 2.00 1.285 Fear 1,87 6.163 0.015 1.60 1.125 2.29 1.487 Smallness 1,87 12.142 0.001 3.73 1.488 4.70 1.027 Amusement 1,87 0.41 0.839 3.83 1.492 3.90 1.715 Disgust 1,87 2.215 0.140 1.35 0.785 1.61 0.833 Sadness 1,87 2.965 0.089 2.10 1.433 2.68 1.738 Happiness 1,87 0.357 0.357 4.83 1.374 4.56 1.397

Table 1: effect of the video on emotions.

Awesome Nature on Willingness to Pay and Message Reception

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18 propensity for spending their money in the factual rather than the abstract condition. However, this effect was not significant on message reception (Table 3). The interaction effect on message reception was marginally significant for p<.10, resulting in a more positive reception for factual messages. This contradicts our H1. However, the interaction effect resulted not significant on the minimum and the maximum WTP (Table 4). In Figures 2,3 and 4 the estimated marginal means for the dependent variables are shown.

H1: not supported

DV df F Sign. Mundane Awesome

M SD M SD

Message Reception 1,85 0.002 0.961 3.67 0.988 3.68 1.106

Minimum WTP 1,85 0.047 0.829 3.15 4.661 3.28 4.275

Maximum WTP 1,85 0.862 0.356 3.86 4.058 3.45 3.669

Table 2: ANOVA analysis for main effect of Video on the dependent variables

DV Df F Sign. Factual Nonsensical

M SD M SD

Message Reception 1,85 2.387 0.126 3.84 1.032 3.53 1.033

Minimum WTP 1,85 12.473 0.001 4.94 4.508 1.74 3.894

Maximum WTP 1,85 13.398 0.000 5.20 3.248 2.37 3.909

Table 3: ANOVA analysis for main effect of Message Type on the dependent variables

DV Df F Sign.

Message Reception 1,85 2.996 0.087

Minimum WTP 1,85 0.067 0.797

Maximum WTP 1,85 0.615 0.435

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19 Figure 2. Estimated marginal means for message reception

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20 Figure 4. Estimated marginal means for the maximum WTP

Mediation Analysis

We tested whether Need for Cognitive Closure has a mediating role between awe and willingness to pay and message reception. The SPSS macro PROCESS, developed by Andrew Hayes (2013) was used to conduct the mediation analysis. Firstly, it was checked if the video exposition had an influence on the levels of NFCC. The output resulted not significant, p=.182. Afterwards, we tested if NFCC had an effect on the dependent variables. NFCC had a marginal and negative significant influence on message reception, p=.068. However, it did not have a significant impact on the minimum WTP,

p=.922, and on the maximum WTP, p=.593. Finally, both the direct and total effects were not

significant on message reception, respectively p=.737 and p=.942, on the minimum WTP, p=.886 and

p=.895, and on the maximum WTP, p=.684 and p=.624. Following the given results, we can state

that Need for Cognitive Closure has no mediating effect. In Figures 5,6 and 7 the mediation outputs are summarized.

H2a: not supported

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21 *Significant for p<0.10

Figure 5: Mediation analysis on message reception

Figure 6: Mediation analysis on the minimum WTP

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Moderation Analysis

A moderation analysis has been conducted to check whether aesthetic sensitivity moderates the relationship between the independent variables (video and message type) and the dependent variables (message reception and willingness to pay). We performed a three-way interaction using the model 3 from PROCESS by Andrew Hayes (2013). In Table 5 results have been summarized. The interaction effects resulted in a not significant effect on both message reception and willingness to pay. Thus, Aesthetic sensitivity does not work as a mediator on the relationship between the video, the message type and the dependent variables.

H3: not supported

DV Coeff. SE Sign.

Message Reception -0.2488 0.3951 0.531

Minimum WTP -0.0222 1.7959 0.991

Maximum WTP 0.3343 1.5499 0.830

Table 5: Three-way interaction effect on the dependent variables

Additional Research - Intelligence and Art Interest

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Intelligence Art Interest Maximum

WTP Minimum WTP Reception Intelligence - 0.076 0.094 0.122 -0.036 Art Interest 0.076 - 0.306** 0.273** 0.523** Maximum WTP 0.094 0.306** - 0.811** 0.553** Minimum WTP 0.122 0.273** 0.811** - 0.570** Reception -0.036 0.523** 0.553** 0.570** -

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) Table 6: Correlation matrix

DISCUSSION

Summary of Findings

The current study analysed the effect of awe on message reception and willingness to pay. Awe has been elicited exposing participants to a video. Subsequently, respondents have been exposed to one of the two types of message, factual or nonsensical. The research was settled in an artistic environment and the messages were combined with an abstract painting. The main finding was that respondents reacted differently to the exposition of the two videos. People who watched the grand nature video felt more awe, anger, fear and smallness. It is interesting that, together with awe, people rated positively their mood on negative emotions. As aforementioned in the literature session, awe can be expressed in different “flavours” (Keltner & Haidt, 2003) and the video used in this survey evoked unenthusiastic feelings, like anger and fear.

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24 influence on willingness to pay, therefore people were more likely to spend their money with in the factual condition.

To investigate the moderating role of aesthetic sensitivity and the mediating effect of need for cognitive closure, we performed respectively model 4 and model 3 from PROCESS by Andrew Hayes (2013). Need for cognitive closure resulted not being influenced by the awe condition, and it had no effect on the dependent variables. The moderation role of aesthetic sensitivity has not been confirmed since all the outputs of the three-way interaction were not significant.

Additional research on intelligence and art interest showed interesting findings. Firstly, intelligence lacks of significant correlation with the dependent variables. This was an expected result, supporting the theory by Frois and Eysenck (1995) according to which the QI has no influence in an aesthetic environment (it accounted for only 10%). Secondly, art interest resulted positively correlated with message reception and willingness to pay. Thus, we can assert that people that are used to art’s concepts, information and exposition are more likely to understand, being touched and feel a piece of art, indifferently from the type of message.

Limitations

Participants for this study were recruited via snowball sampling using social media. This technique gave the research several limitations. First of all, respondents were mostly Italian and German bachelor students between 18 and 24 years old. Moreover, the final sample size was only 89 respondents for 4 conditions. A larger and more heterogeneous sample is the basis for a qualitatively better research.

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25 exposition. A controlled environment, in which we can check the focus people give to the video, would be a useful improvement for this research.

Last limitation is represented by the way respondents have been exposed to the dependent variable conditions, namely the paintings and the factual or nonsensical message. Once again, distraction and other environmental factors could twist the principal effect given by the exposition.

Implication for Future Research

In order to improve this research, next studies could solve the limitations explained above. A larger, more heterogeneous and a more controlled environment during the manipulation could lead to different or at least more reliable results. Also, it would be interesting to examine different types of paintings, for example representative artworks. In this study, abstract paintings have been used but we could also check how people react toward vague messages on representative artworks in general. In the current study, people in the awesome condition felt negative emotions like anger and fear. An intriguing research would be testing my same hypotheses but with participants feeling the positive flavours of awe.

The additional research showed that art interest has a positive and significant correlation with the dependent variables, message reception and willingness to pay. Further research can exploit this result, and check whether art interest can work as a moderator between the independent and dependent variables analysed in the current study.

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Managerial Implications

This study supports previous researches confirming that exposition to grand nature, even if virtual, increases people’s tendency to feel awe. Furthermore, the hypothesis concerning awe and reception of nonsensical messages has been contradicted marginally. Thus, we have some clues for practical implications.

As stated in previous chapters, pseudo-profound and vague messages are used to persuade and influence consumers’ behaviour. Throughout the use of metaphors, marketers can create abstract messages that decrease consumers’ resistance to uncertainty (Boozer, Wyld & Grant, 1990). In particular, when used in an artistic context, metaphors can increase the aesthetic experience and consequently the purchase intention (Millis, 2001; Hall & Hanna, 2004). Following the results of this study, we can affirm that awestruck consumers are not influenced by these techniques. Thus, this research could be considered as a contribution for marketing strategies like art infusion. When awestruck consumers face arts, they are not more influenced by abstract messages. On the contrary, it seems that they have a more positive consideration for factual messages. However, we did not find any significant difference for consumers’ willingness to pay.

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FOOTNOTES.

1. The survey was the combination of two master’s thesis studies: one analyzing the effect of awe on message acceptance and the other examining the effect of awe on message reception. The conditions were synchronized and randomized in order to have equal results.

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APPENDIX

Appendix A: response to artistic exposure

1. I fully understand the artist’s intention 2. I found a personal meaning in the artwork 3. I like the artwork

4. The artwork evoked my interest 5. The artwork affected me emotionally 6. The artwork evoked positive thoughts 7. The artwork evoked negative thoughts

Appendix B: Aesthetic Sensitivity

1. I notice beauty in art or human made objects.

2. When perceiving beauty in a work of art I feel changes in my body, such as a lump in my throat, an expansion in my chest, faster heartbeat, or other bodily responses.

3. When perceiving beauty in a work of art I feel emotional, it “moves me,” such as feeling a sense of awe, or wonder or excitement or admiration or upliftment.

4. When perceiving beauty in a work of art I feel something like a spiritual experience, perhaps a sense of oneness, or being united with the universe, or a love of the entire world.”

Appendix C: Need For Cognitive Closure Scale 15 items

1. I don’t like situations that are uncertain.

2. I dislike questions which could be answered in many different ways. 3. I find that a well-ordered life with regular hours suits my temperament.

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33 7. When I have made a decision, I feel relieved.

8. When I am confronted with a problem, I’m dying to reach a solution very quickly.

9. I would quickly become impatient and irritated if I would not find a solution to a problem immediately.

10. I don’t like to be with people who are capable of unexpected actions. 11. I dislike it when a person’s statement could mean many different things. 12. I find that establishing a consistent routine enables me to enjoy life more. 13. I enjoy having a clear and structured mode of life.

14. I do not usually consult many different opinions before forming my own view. 15. I dislike unpredictable situations.

Appendix D: The Cognitive Reflective Test (CRT)

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

Appendix E: Art Interest

1. I am interested in art

2. I am involved in art during my leisure time 3. I often visit art exhibitions

4. I enjoyed attending art classes at school

5. I visit events on art or art history in my leisure time or because of my studies 6. I always seek new artful impressions and experiences

7. I enjoy talking to other people about art

8. I enjoy reading articles written by artists or about art in general

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