Assimilation and contrast, and order of presentation effects on attitudes toward advertising

Consider people viewing two print ads in a row: one is persuasive and attractive, the other is weak and boring. What will people feel about the ads after they have viewed both of them? Will they give the two ads the same judgments as people who see and rate only one of the ads? Previous research predicted two directions how people will distort their judgments: One is that they assimilate their judgement and believe that the two ads are more similar to each other when they saw two ads in a row than when they rate them individually (e.g., Girgus & Coren, 1982; Hovland & Sherif, 1961; Stapel, Koomen & Pligt, 1997; Tourangeau & Rasinski, 1988). The other is that they contrast their judgements, and thus feeling that the two ads are more different from each other (e.g., Kenrick & Gutierres, 1980; Sherif, Taub, & Hoveland, 1958; Zellner, Rohm & Bassetti, 2003). One factor that decides which direction people will distort their judgments is whether the ads are from the same or different product types. Only when the target stimulus and its context are categorized as from the same group, will the context serve as a comparison standard for the target stimuli, and contrast effect will be invited (Coren & Enns, 1993; Manis & Paskewitz, 1984; Staple & Winkielman, 1998; Zellner et al., 2002). When the sufficient comparison relevance is gone, assimilation will occur (Hovland & Sherif, 1961; Stapel, Koomen, & Pligt, 1997). The order of presentation is also tested in the present study, with focus on how the order affects people's response towards each ad.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Advertising

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Cui, Shuoying

Contributors dc:contributor

• Vargas, Patrick

• Contrast and assimilation
• Order of presentation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Shuoying Cui

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92825

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/92825