Spinning Fantasies Into Consumer Attitudes: a Fantasy-Realization Perspective of Attitude Formation

Fantasy Realization Theory (Oettingen 1996) states that people can dwell on their negative reality, fantasize about a positive future, or mentally compare each. When individuals mentally compare, commitment to the goal of achieving their fantasy is influenced by expectations for goal attainability. Consistent with the attitude literature, such expectations can be influenced by the quality of arguments within an advertisement. Merging these ideas, we predicted and found that participants’ attitudes toward purchasing a car were influenced by the quality of arguments presented in an advertisement for a car dealership, but only if they mentally compared fantasies and reality.

Citation:

R. Justin Goss and Ian Handley (2007) ,"Spinning Fantasies Into Consumer Attitudes: a Fantasy-Realization Perspective of Attitude Formation", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 34, eds. Gavan Fitzsimons and Vicki Morwitz, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 439-450.