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Influencing light versus heavy engagers of harmful behavior to curb their habits through positive and negative ad imagery
Author(s) -
Burton Jennifer L.,
Hill Donna J.,
Bakir Aysen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of consumer behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.811
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1479-1838
pISSN - 1472-0817
DOI - 10.1002/cb.1514
Subject(s) - credibility , psychology , perception , applied psychology , social psychology , advertising , internet privacy , computer science , business , neuroscience , political science , law
Mass media advertising has increasingly been seen as an important vehicle to influence attitudes and behaviors on issues designed to enhance the well‐being of society overall. However, prior research shows mixed results on the ability of advertising to encourage substantial or long‐term changes in self‐destructive behavior. The current research provides a framework to reconcile previous findings and demonstrates that different psychological processes are occurring when trying to convince light versus heavy engagers to curb their potentially harmful behaviors. Validated across two contexts (texting while driving and excessive gambling), the present study demonstrates that ads containing positive imagery (as opposed to negative imagery) are more effective at influencing heavy engagers to limit their harmful behaviors. Heavy engagers in the harmful behavior seem to resist ads containing negative imagery and do not find them to be more credible or involving. Instead, they are more influenced to curb their harmful behaviors after seeing positive imagery containing characters and situations to which they can relate. On the other hand, light engagers of harmful behavior are more likely to be persuaded to limit their behaviors after exposure to advertising containing negative imagery. The negative imagery evokes perceptions of ad credibility and encourages individuals to think about the advertised problem and consequences. Both credibility and ad involvement are shown to be important mediators of ad effectiveness for light engagers, whereas relatability was not a significant mediator for this group. Implications for the design of effective public service announcements targeted toward these separate groups are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.