The Shaping of Social Identity: Assimilation/Contrast Responses to Ad Exposure

Two experiments investigate the impact of exposure to age-targeted advertising on consumers’ selfconcepts as measured with Implicit Association Tests. Two factors were identified that determined whether consumer self-concepts shifted toward (assimilation) or away from (contrast) the presented user imagery: (1) the age discrepancy between the consumer and the depicted user imagery, and (2) whether consumers directly assessed their target market status. Consumers assimilated toward imagery when the age discrepancy was moderate and contrasted with the imagery when the age discrepancy was extreme. These assimilation and contrast responses were amplified when the consumers initially assessed their target market status.

Citation:

Mark Forehand, Andrew Perkins, and Americus Reed II (2007) ,"The Shaping of Social Identity: Assimilation/Contrast Responses to Ad Exposure", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research.