Explaining the Special Case of Incongruity in Advertising: Combining Classic Theoretical Approaches

In order to assess the effectiveness of an advertisement employing incongruity, it would be most helpful to determine when and how incongruity is likely to be processed by consumers and the nature of the response it is likely to evoke. By combining the tenets of two classic processing theories, Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model (1981, 1986) and Mandler’s Schema Incongruity Theory (1982), this article develops an integrative framework for better understanding viewer responses to incongruity.

[1]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Enhancing and Measuring Consumers’ Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability to Process Brand Information from Ads , 1991 .

[2]  S. Budner.  Intolerance of ambiguity as a personality variable. , 1962, Journal of personality.

[3]  Affect and Impression Formation: Influence of Mood on Person Memory , 1995 .

[4]  A. Isen,et al.  The influence of affect on categorization. , 1984 .

[5]  David W. Schumann,et al.  Predicting the Effectiveness of Different Strategies of Advertising Variation: A Test of the Repetition-Variation Hypotheses , 1990 .

[6]  S. Bochner,et al.  Communicator discrepancy, source credibility, and opinion change. , 1966 .

[7]  P. Homer,et al.  Physical Attractiveness of the Celebrity Endorser: A Social Adaptation Perspective , 1985 .

[8]  Alice M. Isen.  The influence of positive and negative affect on cognitive organization: Some implications for development. , 1990 .

[9]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion , 1986 .

[10]  Francis T. Durso,et al.  Effect of schema-incongruent information on memory for stereotypical attributes. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  Colin Camerer,et al.  Recent developments in modeling preferences: Uncertainty and ambiguity , 1992 .

[12]  K. Holyoak,et al.  Schema induction and analogical transfer , 1983, Cognitive Psychology.

[13]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[14]  R. Thayer.  Toward a psychological theory of multidimensional activation (arousal) , 1978 .

[15]  H. Markus.  Self-schemata and processing information about the self. , 1977 .

[16]  Curtis P. Haugtvedt,et al.  Advertising Repetition and Variation Strategies: Implications for Understanding Attitude Strength , 1994 .

[17]  Duane T. Wegener,et al.  Attitudes and attitude change. , 1997, Annual review of psychology.

[18]  D. Mackie,et al.  The impact of positive affect on persuasion processes. , 1992 .

[19]  Stella Vosniadou,et al.  Similarity and analogical reasoning: a synthesis , 1989 .

[20]  A. Tesser,et al.  Some attitudinal and cognitive consequences of thought , 1977 .

[21]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[22]  J. Bettman,et al.  The Effects of Brand Positioning Strategies on Consumers’ Brand and Category Perceptions: Some Insights from Schema Research , 1989 .

[23]  David W. Schumann,et al.  Celebrity Endorsements-Scripts, Schema and Roles: Theoretical Framework and Preliminary Tests , 1988 .

[24]  Serra A. Tinic.  United colors and untied meanings: Benetton and the commodification of social issues , 1997 .

[25]  F. Heider.  The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[26]  Richard E. Petty,et al.  Majority and minority influence : source-position imbalance as a determinant of message scrutiny , 1994 .

[27]  C. Yoon.  Age Differences in Consumers' Processing Strategies: An Investigation of Moderating Influences , 1997 .

[28]  Joan Meyers-Levy,et al.  Exploring Differences in Males' and Females' Processing Strategies , 1991 .

[29]  G. Bower.  Mood and memory. , 1981, The American psychologist.

[30]  P. S. Raju.  Optimum Stimulation Level: Its Relationship to Personality, Demographics, and Exploratory Behavior , 1980 .

[31]  Christopher Leone,et al.  Cognitive schemas and thought as determinants of attitude change , 1977 .

[32]  Michael A. Kamins.  An Investigation into the “Match-up” Hypothesis in Celebrity Advertising: When Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep , 1990 .

[33]  D. Bobrow,et al.  Representation and Understanding: Studies in Cognitive Science , 1975 .

[34]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  SOME PRINCIPLES OF MEMORY SCHEMATA , 1975 .

[35]  R. E. Burnkrant,et al.  A Motivational Model of Information Processing Intensity , 1976 .

[36]  Jacob Jacoby,et al.  Personality and Innovation Proneness , 1971 .

[37]  J. W. Hutchinson,et al.  Dimensions of Consumer Expertise , 1987 .

[38]  P. Wilton,et al.  Task, Expectancy, and Information Assessment Effects in Information Utilization Processes , 1986 .

[39]  J. Jacoby,et al.  Consumer Behavior , 2024 .

[40]  J. Wesley Hutchinson,et al.  The Prototypicality of Brands: Relationships With Brand Awareness, Preference and Usage , 1985 .

[41]  N. Schwarz,et al.  Happy and Mindless, But Sad and Smart? The Impact of Affective States on Analytic Reasoning , 1991 .

[42]  Thomas K. Srull,et al.  Person memory: Some tests of associative storage and retrieval models , 1981 .

[43]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches , 1981 .

[44]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The need for cognition. , 1982 .

[45]  T. Shultz.  A Cognitive-Developmental Analysis of Humour , 1976 .

[46]  D. Cicchetti.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1993 .

[47]  R. Thayer.  Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List: Current Overview and Structural Analysis , 1986 .

[48]  S. Fiske,et al.  The novice and the expert: Knowledge-based strategies in political cognition , 1983 .

[49]  David J. Klein,et al.  Effects of mood on high elaboration attitude change: The mediating role of likelihood judgments , 1994 .

[50]  A. Battersby.  Plans and the Structure of Behavior , 1968 .

[51]  C. M. Schaninger,et al.  The Influence of Cognitive Personality Traits and Demographics on Consumer Information Acquisition , 1981 .

[52]  R. Weisberg,et al.  Context-dependent effects on analogical transfer , 1986, Memory & cognition.

[53]  C. D. Ward,et al.  Better Liked than Right , 1980 .

[54]  J. Piaget,et al.  Intelligence and Affectivity: Their Relationship During Child Development , 1981 .

[55]  Deborah Roedder John,et al.  Consumer Learning by Analogy: A Model of Internal Knowledge Transfer , 1997 .

[56]  David A. Aaker,et al.  Warmth in Advertising: Measurement, Impact, and Sequence Effects , 1986 .

[57]  Joan Meyers-Levy,et al.  Consumers' processing of persuasive advertisements: An integrative framework of persuasion theories , 1999 .

[58]  L. Barsalou.  Ideals, central tendency, and frequency of instantiation as determinants of graded structure in categories. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[59]  John T. Cacioppo,et al.  The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion , 1986, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.

[60]  R. C. Goodstein.  Category-based Applications and Extensions in Advertising: Motivating More Extensive Ad Processing , 1993 .

[61]  John W. Atkinson,et al.  Introduction: Motivation , 1964 .

[62]  Julie L. Ozanne,et al.  A Study of Information Search Behavior during the Categorization of New Products , 1992 .

[63]  I. G. Evans,et al.  Is the Messaqe Beinq Received? Benetton Analysed , 1993 .

[64]  C. Cherniak.  Prototypicality and deductive reasoning , 1984 .

[65]  John G. Lynch,et al.  Memory and Attentional Factors in Consumer Choice: Concepts and Research Methods , 1982 .

[66]  Elizabeth Pugzles Lorch,et al.  Program Context, Sensation Seeking, and Attention to Televised Anti-Drug Public Service Announcements , 1994 .

[67]  A. Graesser,et al.  Memory for actions in scripted activities as a function of typicality, retention interval, and retrieval task , 1981, Memory & cognition.

[68]  Michael S. LaTour,et al.  There are Threats and (Maybe) Fear-Caused Arousal: Theory and Confusions of Appeals to Fear and Fear Arousal Itself , 1997 .

[69]  Karen H. Smith,et al.  Some Effects of Schematic Processing on Consumer Expectations and Disconfirmation Judgments , 1992 .

[70]  L. Donohew,et al.  Sensation Seeking and Targeting of Televised Anti-Drug PSAs. , 1989 .

[71]  S. Levy.  Stalking the Amphisbaena , 1996 .

[72]  C. Osgood,et al.  The principle of congruity in the prediction of attitude change. , 1955, Psychological review.

[73]  Muzafer Sherif,et al.  Attitude and Attitude Change: The Social Judgment-Involvement Approach , 1982 .

[74]  Tülin Erdem.  An Empirical Analysis of Umbrella Branding , 1998 .

[75]  W. Wallace.  REVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL, EMPIRICAL, AND THEORETICAL STATUS OF THE VON RESTORFF PHENOMENON. , 1965, Psychological bulletin.

[76]  E. Hirschman.  Innovativeness, Novelty Seeking, and Consumer Creativity , 1980 .

[77]  L. Festinger,et al.  A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , 2017 .

[78]  A. Tversky,et al.  Affect, Generalization, and the Perception of Risk. , 1983 .

[79]  Margaret C. Campbell,et al.  The Moderating Effect of Perceived Risk on Consumers’ Evaluations of Product Incongruity: Preference for the Norm , 2001 .

[80]  T. K. Srull.  Person Memory: The Role of Processing Strategy, Expectancy, and Level of Incongruity in The Processing of Interindividual and Intraindividual Behavioral Variability , 1980 .

[81]  M. Sujan,et al.  Consumer Knowledge: Effects on Evaluation Strategies Mediating Consumer Judgments , 1985 .

[82]  Jaideep Sengupta,et al.  All Cues Are Not Created Equal: Obtaining Attitude Persistence under Low-Involvement Conditions , 1997 .

[83]  Linda L. Price,et al.  Exploration in product usage: A model of use innovativeness , 1994 .

[84]  Terry L. Childers,et al.  Picture-Word Consistency and the Elaborative Processing of Advertisements , 1987 .

[85]  A. Ortony,et al.  Similarity and Analogical Reasoning , 1991 .

[86]  J. Bettman,et al.  Effects of Consumer Expectations on Information Processing in Selling Encounters , 1986 .

[87]  J. Forgas.  Strange Couples: Mood Effects on Judgments and Memory about Prototypical and Atypical Relationships , 1995 .

[88]  Alice M. Tybout,et al.  Schema Congruity as a Basis for Product Evaluation , 1989 .

[89]  G. Chandrasekaran,et al.  Acceptance of management science recommendations: The role of cognitive styles and dogmatism , 1986, Inf. Manag..

[90]  Richard C. Sherman,et al.  Memory for persuasive messages: A test of a schema-copy-plus-tag model. , 1984 .

[91]  Alice M. Tybout,et al.  The Moderating Role of Prior Knowledge in Schema-Based Product Evaluation , 1996 .

[92]  Michael A. Kamins,et al.  Congruence between spokesperson and product type: A matchup hypothesis perspective , 1994 .

[93]  James R. Bettman,et al.  Constructive Processes in Consumer Choice , 1977 .

[94]  S. Beatty,et al.  Celebrity spokesperson and brand congruence: An assessment of recall and affect , 1990 .

[95]  T. K. Srull,et al.  Person memory and judgment. , 1989, Psychological review.

[96]  T. K. Srull,et al.  Associative storage and retrieval processes in person memory. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[97]  R. Spiro.  Accommodative reconstruction in prose recall. , 1980 .

[98]  J. Forgas.  Mood and judgment: the affect infusion model (AIM). , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[99]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement , 1983 .

[100]  B. Zeigarnik.  On finished and unfinished tasks. , 1938 .

[101]  R. Petty,et al.  Positive Mood and Persuasion: Different Roles for Affect Under High- and Low-Elaboration Conditions , 1993 .

[102]  L. R. Novick.  Analogical transfer, problem similarity, and expertise. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[103]  G. Miller,et al.  Plans and the structure of behavior , 1960 .

[104]  T. K. Srull,et al.  Memory and Cognition in Its Social Context , 1989 .

[105]  M. Sherif,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1946, Psychological review.

[106]  R. Hastie,et al.  Person memory: Personality traits as organizing principles in memory for behaviors. , 1979 .

[107]  J. F. Tanner,et al.  Radon: Appealing to our fears1 , 2003 .

[108]  R. Batra,et al.  The Role of Mood in Advertising Effectiveness , 1990 .

[109]  Steven L. Neuberg,et al.  A Continuum of Impression Formation, from Category-Based to Individuating Processes: Influences of Information and Motivation on Attention and Interpretation , 1990 .

[110]  S. Ratneshwar,et al.  The Effect of Cultural Orientation on Persuasion , 1997 .