An arousal-based explanation of affect dynamics
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of pre-existing mood valence, mood arousal and ad-evoked arousal on response to television and print advertising. It combined the arousal-as-information and arousal regulation approaches into a single arousal congruence theory. It sought an extended application of arousal congruence theory in the persuasion domain with several novel findings.
Design/methodology/approach
Four experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. Analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance and pairwise comparison were used for data analysis.
Findings
Consumer judgment is a joint function of mood valence, mood arousal and ad-evoked arousal. Positive mood does not always generate more positive evaluations and vice versa. Ad-evoked arousal can more strongly influence consumers’ judgments when they are in a negative rather than a positive mood. Furthermore, consumers in a positive mood rate a target more favorably when the ad-evoked arousal level is congruent with their current arousal state, while those in a negative mood rate a target more favorably when the ad-evoked arousal level is incongruent with their current state of arousal. Arousal polarization intensifies such congruence (and incongruence) effects.
Practical implications
The findings reveal a mood-lifting opportunity based on ad-evoked arousal. This has implications for the design of advertisements, promotional materials, marketing campaigns and retailing environments.
Originality/value
This paper’s findings highlight unexpected effects of stimulus-evoked arousal in persuasion when consumers are exposed to multiple emotional cues from the environment. The paper demonstrates the utility of an integrated model, explaining the relative importance of valence and arousal in influencing consumer judgments. It has been the first to examine arousal congruence, arousal polarization and arousal regulation mechanisms jointly.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This project was started when Li Yan was studying at the University of Macau. The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers of EJM, Professor Hean Tat KEH (Monash University) and Dr Chu Rongwei (Fudan University) for their valued comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript. The work was funded by the research committee of University of Macau (Ref. no: No. MYRG2014-00095-FBA).
Citation
Yan, L., Liu, M.T., Chen, X. and Shi, G. (2016), "An arousal-based explanation of affect dynamics", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 50 No. 7/8, pp. 1159-1184. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-05-2015-0288
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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