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Promotions Spontaneously Induce a Positive Evaluative Response
Author(s) -
Naylor Rebecca Walker,
Raghunathan Rajagopal,
Ramanathan Suresh
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1207/s15327663jcp1603_11
Subject(s) - promotion (chess) , psychology , product (mathematics) , regulatory focus theory , cognition , social psychology , contrast (vision) , need for cognition , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , computer science , mathematics , creativity , political science , law , geometry , artificial intelligence , politics
Research has suggested that conscious cognitive processes mediate positive responses to promotions. In contrast, we find that exposure to promotional stimuli evokes a positive evaluative reaction spontaneously and that this reaction generalizes to products that are evaluated subsequently. Three experiments support our predictions and rule out alternative possibilities. Specifically, we find that promotions spontaneously evoke positive evaluative responses and that these responses mediate liking for a target product. Our findings also identify conditions under which promotion‐generated evaluative responses are transferred to products unrelated to the promotion and indicate the type of product categories that are likely to produce this effect. The theoretical and substantive implications of this research are discussed.