Affect infusion occurs when feelings elicited by one stimulus (an affect-laden cue) influence reactions to a different stimulus (an attitude object). This effect often happens when the two stimuli are experienced closely in time and space. According to Gestalt principles, a spatial/temporal covariation of the two stimuli can make them mentally connected (Heider 1958), so that the affect elicited by the cue can be easily transferred to the attitude object. In this dissertation, I propose that people’s semantic knowledge regarding the conceptual relations between co-occurring stimuli can modify affect infusion processes. On the one hand, the semantic knowledge can specify the type of relations (e.g., cause-effect relations, negations) that the two stimuli have. The specific relation can be integrated with the associative link (developed based on Gestalt principles) to influence people’s evaluative judgments of the attitude object. Therefore, a negational relation between the two stimuli may make the attitude object obtain a valence opposite to the affective cue, showing a reversal of the affect infusion effect. On the other hand, the semantic knowledge can be applied to assess the validity of the associative link. If the link is perceived as being invalid (i.e., the conceptual connection between the two stimuli is implausible according to semantic knowledge), the mental grouping can be inhibited, thus constraining affect infusion. I tested the above proposition using six experiments. The results provide answers to two managerial problems. In Essay 1, I focused on the problem regarding the effectiveness of using aversive cues in advertising for building a positive brand image. The results of four experiments indicate that people can spontaneously process the implicit negational relation between co-occurring stimuli (e.g., a flu-vaccine brand and a sickness cue), so that aversive cues can enhance attitudes towards co-occurring brands even in the absence of an efficacy statement. However, the positive effect of using aversive cues on brand attitudes occurs only when consumers have sufficient cognitive resources to process the ads; when cognitive resources are constrained, using aversive cues backfires. Such results support that conceptual relations between co-occurring stimuli can modify the affect infusion process. But the modification may not be easily achieved given that processing conceptual relations (e.g., negations) can be effortful. In Essay 2, I focus on the managerial issue regarding the potential influence of negative affective cues (e.g., tragic news) in a media context to brands advertised in close proximity. Specifically, advertisements may unintentionally appear adjacent to negative news, so that companies may worry about the occurrence of undesirable affect infusion to their brands. The results of two experiments indicate that affect infusion can be constrained when the co-occurring stimuli (the brand and negative news) are perceived not to have a plausible conceptual connection according to people’s semantic knowledge. Such a constraint happens mainly when the product category of the brand is clearly defined. When the category information becomes more impoverished, people cannot easily determine the unrelatedness of co-occurring stimuli. In this condition, affect infusion is evident in brand evaluations. These results again support that conceptual relations between co-occurring stimuli can modify affect infusion processes. But the modification will be attenuated if processing conceptual relations (e.g., invalidating an association) is difficult. Overall, the results of two essays suggest that Gestalt grouping is the default process for learning co-occurring stimuli. A processing of conceptual relations between the stimuli can be regarded as a second layer, which modifies the grouping outcome. Any factor (e.g., insufficient cognitive resources, impoverished information of attitude objects) that creates difficulty in information processing may remove the second layer, making affect infusion evident in evaluative judgments.

Creator

• Fan, Xiaomeng

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-vb9n-wv03

Subject

• Marketing

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:14616
• etdadmin_upload_661870

Date created

• 2019-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright