“Effects of Self-Affirmation and Individualistic-Collectivistic Appeals on Open-Mindedness and Advertising Effectiveness”

Consumers often resist information that conflicts with their preexisting attitudes or beliefs. Resistance to advertising is common, even when advertisers attempt to communicate important and novel messages. This research focuses on a new advertising technique called self-affirmation, which attempts to enhance consumers' self-perceptions to reduce resistance to persuasion. Two experiments explored the impact of self-affirmation on consumers’ open-mindedness to advertising and overall advertising effectiveness. This research offers the first demonstration of embedded self-affirmation working within an advertising message. Results support the usefulness of self-affirmation as a technique to reach consumers who are ordinarily highly resistant to advertising’s persuasive appeals.

Citation:

Mary Lou Kohne (2007) ,"“Effects of Self-Affirmation and Individualistic-Collectivistic Appeals on Open-Mindedness and Advertising Effectiveness”", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 34, eds. Gavan Fitzsimons and Vicki Morwitz, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 457-460.