The Influence of Experience and Sequence of Conflicting Emotions on Ad Attitudes

Two experiments suggest that when participants evaluate an ad, they prefer improving ad emotions, because attitudes are based on an assessment of whether the emotions deviate positively or negatively from previous levels of emotions. In contrast, when emotions are experienced, positive emotions facilitate coping with later negativity, and an ad with declining (vs. improving) emotions results in more favorable attitudes. This beneficial effect of experienced positive emotions in reducing the impact of subsequent negative emotions is reversed when the positive emotions are allowed to dissipate over a time delay between the experiences of the two emotions.

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