Lost and found: Individual differences in propensity to process visual elements of persuasion

Visual processing style, defined as the relative propensity to engage in visual processing rather than verbal processing, is an individual difference variable that has been frequently investigated in the consumer psychology literature. Surprisingly, numerous studies have reported no relationship between visual processing style and viewer responses to visual elements of persuasion. We argue that this accumulation of null results is due to untenable historical theoretical assumptions that underlie the construct, along with methodological problems that are inevitably brought about by those theoretical assumptions. We reconceptualize visual processing style and test an alternative empirical operationalization of it. Using both new data and a reanalysis of data published in the Journal of Consumer Research, we find the old approach yields null results, but we find the new approach yields the expected results. The new approach reinstates the utility of incorporating propensity to engage in visual processing as an individual difference variable into consumer psychology models of visual persuasion, and it reinstates a powerful individual difference variable that can help push forward the investigation of the unique aspects of visual persuasion.     

Good for the feelings,bad for the memory: the impact of 3D versus 2D movies on persuasion knowledge and brand placement effectiveness

Abstract

Brand placements have been a popular advertising strategy for several decades, yet the effects of technological factors have been largely neglected in brand placement research. Consequently, this study analyzes the impact of a popular media technology, namely stereoscopy, on brand placement effectiveness, using the limited capacity model of mediated message processing and the persuasion knowledge model to predict and explain the effects. The main study (N?=?120) confirmed that compared with 3D movies, in 2D movies the participants were more likely to remember the brands placed and to critically reflect the persuasive intentions behind the placements. The additional structural elements in stereoscopic movies appear to require more cognitive resources. The consequent lack of cognitive capacity diminishes persuasion knowledge, which, in turn, positively affects brand evaluations and behavioral intentions. A post-hoc study (N?=?54) validated the assumption that media users watching 3D movies experience a higher cognitive load than those watching 2D movies.