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Your ethnic model speaks to the culturally connected: Differential effects of model ethnicity in advertisements and the role of cultural self‐construal
Author(s) -
Hesapci Ozlem,
Merdin Ezgi,
Gorgulu Sahika
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.1562
Subject(s) - ethnic group , turkish , interdependence , self construal , social psychology , psychology , construal level theory , advertising , sociology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , anthropology , business
This paper examines self‐construal and consumer self‐referencing as a mechanism for explaining ethnicity effects in advertising. Data were collected from a 2 (participant ethnicity: Turkish versus Kurdish) × 2 (model ethnicity: Turkish versus Kurdish) × 2 (self‐construal: independent versus interdependent) experiment. Results show that (i) individuals with interdependent self‐construal display more positive evaluations towards an in‐group ethnic ad model than do individuals with independent self‐construal; (ii) ethnic minority individuals (Kurdish people) self‐referenced more advertising portrayals of models of a similar ethnicity than models of a different ethnicity, as did ethnic majority individuals (Turkish people); (iii) ethnic minority individuals who experienced high levels of self‐referencing exhibited more favourable attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and a higher purchase intention than ethnic minority individuals who experienced low levels of self‐referencing; and (iv) self‐referencing is found to partially mediate the relationship between culturally constructed self‐concept (self‐construal) and ethnicity on consumer evaluations for interdependent subjects. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.