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Humor and ad memorability: On the contributions of humor expectancy, relevancy, and need for humor
Author(s) -
Kellaris James J.,
Cline Thomas W.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
psychology and marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.035
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1520-6793
pISSN - 0742-6046
DOI - 10.1002/mar.20170
Subject(s) - expectancy theory , recall , humor research , psychology , social psychology , sense of humor , cognitive psychology
Humor is often used in advertising to make messages more entertaining and memorable. There are circumstances, however, under which humor can impede the acquisition of information from ads. This study explores these circumstances by examining how the interplay of humor expectancy, humor relevancy, and individuals' need for humor influences message claims recall. Results of experimentation show that recall is damaged when humor is expected—especially when expected humor is conceptually related to the message. Additionally, the deleterious impact of humor expectancy on recall is more pronounced among individuals characterized by low need for humor. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.