final research paper

Running head: LINKING COGNIIVE PSYCHOLOGY WITH CONSUMER BEHAVIOR 1

Linking Cognitive Psychology with Consumer Behavior: The Impact of Physical Attractiveness

on Recall of Product Attributes

John Bell

University of Missouri-Columbia

Author Note

John Bell, Department of Psychological Science, University of Missouri-Columbia.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to John Bell, 1115 Ashland Road,

Columbia, MO 65201. E-mail: [email protected]

LINKING COGNIIVE PSYCHOLOGY WITH CONSUMER BEHAVIOR 2

Abstract

In this paper, exploratory research is conducted to examine the effects of physical attractiveness

of an individual in an advertisement, and biological sex differences of an individual viewing the

ad on memory for the products in the advertisement. Results indicate that for unattractive

models, participants remembered more for female models. In comparison, participants did not

significantly differ for attractive models. This exploratory research addresses one important

research question: does the physical attractiveness of an individual in an advertisement have a

positive or negative effect on the recall of product attributes? The importance of this study is to

inform researchers about the underlying psychological processes that are available when

individuals view advertisements. The dependent variable was measured using a recall test.

Keywords: recall, biological sex differences, advertising, physical attractiveness, memory


Linking Cognitive Psychology with Consumer Behavior: The Impact of Physical Attractiveness

on Recall of Product Attributes

Individuals are regularly exposed to advertisements on a daily basis. Marketing and

advertising can without a doubt be manipulative and persuasive to individuals, and business

executives certainly implement strategies to capture the attention of their target consumers. A

strategy that is most often identifiable in advertising is the appearance of attractive individuals

promoting a corporation’s product—and they are usually perceived as being happy and content

as a result of using or consuming the product. Do individuals make judgments based solely off of

the person promoting the product, or do they carefully analyze the attributes of the product? Past

research addresses topics in social and cognitive psychology relating to physical attractiveness in

the context of advertising and marketing.

Social Factors

According to Caballero, Lumpkin, and Madden, (1989) there is substantial empirical

evidence that finds support for the impact of physical attractiveness on an assortment of

responses from humans. Caballero and her colleagues suggested that attractiveness is not

necessarily a noteworthy variable in regards to encouraging behavioral compliance from

consumers. In this study, six spokespersons (3 males and 3 females) were chosen to promote two

grocery products (Slice and Cheese). The researchers examined the effects of spokesperson

attractiveness on the customer’s willingness to buy the product. The participants involved in their

study were adult shoppers who were asked about their willingness to purchase a product after

viewing a videotape sales presentation. The researchers concluded that physical attractiveness of


the spokesperson was not associated with their willingness to buy the product. Their findings

actually contradict previous. According to exchange theory, “interpersonal attraction mediates

exchange decisions by influencing the subjective probabilities and utilities of the outcome”

(Bagozzi, 1974, p.16). This theory appears to be supported from ideas articulated by Byrne

(1971), which he specifies that physical attractiveness provokes a multiplicity of positive

acknowledgements from respondents. Patzer (1983) examined the relationship between

communicator physical attractiveness and source credibility within a marketing context. Patzer

found a relationship between communicator physical attractiveness and perceived trust,

perceived expertise, and liking for the communicator.

Cognitive Factors

In comparison to the numerous findings in social psychology, there are also many factors

in cognitive psychology that are associated with physical attractiveness in advertising. Lerman

and Garbarino (2002) examined memory for particular categories (words versus non-words,

words versus irrelevant words, and relevant words cuing an advertised attribute versus relevant

words cuing an unadvertised attribute) depends on whether it is retrieved via recall or

recognition. Aaker (1991) explains that “consumer understanding of a brand’s image derives

from the brand name and the associations it elicits” (p. 621). This is notable because

“associations” could straightforwardly refer to consumers relating the physical attractiveness of

the individual in an advertisement to the product that is being promoted. Gibson, Redker, and

Zimmerman (2013) evaluated how brand recall and persuasion knowledge combined have an

impact on brand attitudes and brand self-identification after product placement. Their results

suggest that product placement in regards to the advertisement can have an influence on implicit

and explicit measures, and that a single placement experience can have positive and negative


effects depending on brand recall and whether viewers are clued-up to interpret product

placement.

These findings appear to be consistent with studies conducted by Baack, Wilson and Till

(2008). The researchers propose that differences in how consumers interact with nontraditional

media (airport terminal vs. preshow cinema advertising) influence the effect of advertising

creativity on memory. Creative advertising was found to enhance recognition, and this positive

effect essentially will escalate over time. These findings are similar to Pieters and Bijmolt

(1997), who examined the effect of duration, serial position, and competition on consumer

memory for television advertising. The researchers found that a commercial’s duration has a

positive effect, and advertising competition has a negative effect on brand-name recall.

By the same token, these findings are consistent with Smith (2007), which he states that

“advertising creativity improves a variety of important cognitive and outcome variables” (p. 85).

Lee and Lee (2011) suggest that high- and low-knowledge consumers varied in product memory

and evaluation in the contexts of competitive and non-competitive advertisements. These

dissimilarities could be clarified by consumers either engaging in item-specific and/or relational

processing. In addition, Donthu, Cherian, and Bhargava (1993) found a relationship between

attention and recall in the context of outdoor advertising. The researchers examined the result of

billboard- and respondent-related factors that impact the effectiveness of outdoor advertising.

They found that participant’s involvement with the product being advertised had a significant

impact on their recall of the advertisements. Hewett (1975) examined if human curiosity was a

significant factor in outdoor advertising. He found that curiosity was statistically significant,

which finds support for the idea that humans will actually take the initiative to recall information

from billboards.


Current Study

The current study examines the effects of the physical attractiveness of an individual in an

advertisement, and biological sex differences of an individual viewing the ad on memory for the

products in the advertisement. The current study consisted of three independent variables and

one dependent variable. The independent variables considered in this study were: the physical

attractiveness of an individual in an advertisement, participant biological sex, and the biological

sex of the model in the advertisement. The current study differs from previous studies because

the variable of interest (memory recall) contrast with social/behavioral factors that are most

commonly addressed—such as willingness to buy the product and source credibility. The

importance of this study is to expand on past concepts concerning physical attractiveness and

advertising. The current study is exploratory in nature because previous researchers have not

specifically examined effects of physical attractiveness of an individual in an advertisement, and

biological sex differences of an individual viewing the ad on memory for the products in the

advertisement. Previous researchers have primarily examined the effects on advertising

scheduling—such as advantages and disadvantages of using spaced vs. massed learning for

consumers viewing the ads. We explore these findings and expand on their theories and

conclusions with empirical research concerning physical attractiveness and biological sex

differences. With the objective of exploration rooted in a wide variety of theories, this study

addresses one important research question: does the physical attractiveness of an individual in an

advertisement have a positive or negative effect on the recall of product attributes when we

consider biological sex differences in the individuals viewing an advertisement?


Method

Participants

Thirty University of Missouri-Columbia undergraduates (15 women, 15 men) participated

in the study. The males were recruited from the Sigma Pi Fraternity, and the females were

recruited from the Society for Human Resource Management. The average age of participants in

the study was 21.33 years (SD=.80). In terms of race, participants were 93.3% white and 6.7%

Asian.

Materials

Advertisements. The participants viewed a total of eight advertisements. The researchers

originally selected the advertisements from the internet and magazines. The researchers did not

randomly select the advertisements. It was important that there were males and females in each

of the advertisements, so this was definitely an important factor when the researchers picked out

their stimuli. The researchers scored each question by its type (brand or non-brand). We were

able to determine the attractiveness of the model in the advertisement based off the pilot data that

was collected. There were two brand questions, and four non-brand questions—for a total of six

questions. The questions were primarily focused on advertising phrases, items in the

advertisement, and the model sex.

Attractiveness scale. For the pilot study, an attractiveness scale was administered to each

participant to determine which individuals in the advertisements were perceived to be either

physically attractive or physically unattractive (see Appendix A). Approximately ten

undergraduates (5 women, 5 men) participated in the pilot study. The average age of participants

in the pilot study was 22.2 years (SD=1.03).


Demographic questionnaire. Each participant was asked to complete a demographic

questionnaire asking about biological sex, age, race, and ethnicity (see Appendix B).

Recall test. In order to measure the dependent variable, each participant completed a quiz

over how much information they recalled about the products being promoted in the

advertisements (see Appendix C).

Procedures

Two surveys were administered: an attractiveness scale and a demographic questionnaire.

The surveys were administered after obtaining informed consent (see Appendix D). Each

participant viewed each of the eight advertisements being displayed for exactly forty-five

seconds. The participants viewed the advertisements on a projector screen from Microsoft

PowerPoint. The participants immediately completed a recall test after viewing each of the eight

advertisements. The participants were instructed to inform the researchers when they were ready

to proceed to the next advertisement. Participants received an information sheet that described

the significance of study (see Appendix E). Participants were then thanked for their participation.

Results

A mixed-repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test the effects of the

biological sex of the model, sex of the participant, and the physical attractiveness of the model in

the advertisement on memory recall for product attributes. There was a significant main effect, F

(1, 28) =6.292, p < .05, η2 =.183 for model sex when the participants answered brand questions

(see Table 1). The interaction between physical attractiveness and model sex was found to be

statistically significant, F (1, 28) =6.286, p < .05, η2 =.183 (see Table 1). A participants ability to

recall advertising content relating to brand questions was significantly greater when the sex of


the model was female (M=.913, SD=.021), than when the sex of the model was male (M=.829,

SD=.027). The significant interaction revealed that participants remembered more advertising

content when they answered brand questions when the model was an unattractive female

(M=.925) as opposed to when the model was an unattractive male (M=.750). It is important to

note that when the models were attractive there were no differences in the amount recalled based

on the model’s biological sex.

Discussion

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of physical attractiveness of a model

in an advertisement and biological sex differences of an individual viewing the ad on memory

for the products in the advertisement. Previous research has measured memory recall after

individuals were exposed to advertisements. For instance, Zielske (1959) found support for the

idea that spacing has a more positive effect on memory as opposed to massing. The study lasted

for one year, and 13 repeated mailings were sent out every week or every four weeks to subjects

to measure memory recall. However, there certainly were shortcomings associated with the study

because it is difficult for advertisers to decide on an optimal schedule. In the current study, in

terms of memory recall for questions pertaining to brand content, participants recalled more with

unattractive females relative to unattractive males. However, the participants recalled the same

amount for attractive females, attractive males, and unattractive males. This could be because

males may be more attentive to the brand attributes when they are not distracted by attractive

females who are promoting the product in the ad. Our results have important implications for

research on the use of models in advertising, and how they can either have a positive or negative

effect on consumer recall for the product attributes.


Limitations of the present study include a reliance on the subjective responses in the pilot

study. The use of present advertisements may confound memory recall results, as some

respondents will be familiar with the advertisement or the brand that is promoted. Another

shortcoming is that participants in the study could have possibly caught on that the dependent

variable being measured was memory recall. This could have motivated them to pay closer

attention to the advertisements and deliberately try to memorize more content because it would

have made them appear knowledgeable to the researchers. Lastly, the experiment consisted of

students viewing advertisements on a projector screen in a classroom—this makes the

environment somewhat artificial and the recall test may not generalize to everyday conditions. A

positive thing to consider is attractiveness, model sex, and sex of the subject for non-brand

questions could possibly have been significant if there would have been a larger sample size.

This would have certainly strengthened the study.

This study has practical applications, such as its ability to facilitate ideas in the marketing

field in regards to expanding research on the effects of physical attractiveness in advertising on

consumer memory, and biological sex differences that are associated with this. The study could

also be suitable for advertising executives in corporate environments. These results enable

advertising executives in business to make sound decisions based off of empirical, scientific

research. Cognitive psychologists who are interested in advertising scheduling and the effect it

has on consumer memory could also consider the physical attractiveness of the model in the ad.

In brief, it is evident that the current study offers many practical implications and future research

should expand on this topic.


References

Aaker, A. (1991). Managing brand equity. New York: Free Press.

Baack, D. W., Wilson R.T., & Till, B.D. (2008). Creativity and memory effects. Journal of

Advertising, 37, 85-94. doi: 10.2753/JOA0091-3367370407.

Bagozzi, R. P. (1974). Marketing as an organized behavioral system of exchange. Journal of

Marketing, 38, 77-81.

Byrne, D. (1971). The attraction paradigm. New York: Academic Press.

Caballero, J. M., Lumpkin, J.R., & Madden, C.S. (1989). Using physical attractiveness as an

advertising tool: An empirical test of the attraction phenomenon. Journal of Advertising

Research, 29, 16-22.

Donthu, N., Cherian, J., & Bhargava, M. (1993). Factors influencing recall of outdoor

advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 33, 64-73.

Gibson, B., Redker, C., & Zimmerman, I. (2013). Conscious and non-conscious effects of

product placement: Brand recall and active persuasion knowledge affect brand attitudes

and brand self-identification differently. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1-19. doi:

10.1037/a0032594.

Hewett, W. C. (1975). The significance of human curiosity in an outdoor advertising experiment.

Journal of Business, 48, 108-110.

Lee, B., & Lee, W. (2011). The impact of product knowledge on consumer product memory and

evaluation in the competitive ad context: The item-specific-relational perspective.

Psychology and Marketing, 28, 360-387. doi: 10.1002/mar.20360.


Lerman, D., & Garbarino, E. (2002). Recall and recognition of brand names: A comparison of

word and non-word name types. Psychology and Marketing, 19, 621-639. doi:

10.1002/mar.10028.

Noseworthy, T. J., Cotte, J., & Lee, Seung Hwan. (2011). The effects of ad context and gender

on the identification of visually incongruent products. Journal of Consumer Research,

38, 358-375.

Patzer, G. L. (1983). Source credibility as a function of communicator physical attractiveness.

Journal of Business Research, 11, 41-229.

Pieters, R., Bijmolt, T. (1997). Consumer memory for television advertising: A field study of

duration, serial position, and competition effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 23,

362-372.

Smith, R. E., & Yang, X. (2004). Toward a general theory of creativity in advertising:

Examining the role of divergence. Marketing Theory, 4, 31-58. doi:

10.1177/1470593104044086.

Zielske, H. A. (1959). The remembering and forgetting of advertising. Journal of marketing, 23,

239-243.


Table 1Means and Standard Deviations for Brand Attributes______________________________________________________________________________

Male (Subject) Female (Subject)

Attractive Male .9167 (.20412) .9000 (.18420)

Attractive Female .8667 (.24761) .9333 (.14840)

Unattractive male .8000 (.19365) .7000 ( .23528)

Unattractive female .9333 (.11443) .9167 (.20412)

______________________________________________________________________________

Note: Standard deviations are in parentheses

Table 2

Means and Standard Deviations for Non-brand Attributes______________________________________________________________________________

Male (Subject) Female (Subject)

Attractive Male .8417 (.12014) .8750 (.14174)

Attractive Female .8667 (.12014) .8250 (.16229)

Unattractive male .8583 (.13251) .8036 (.14509)

Unattractive female .8000 (.19933) .8167 (.14840)

______________________________________________________________________________

Note: Standard deviations are in parentheses


Appendix A

Please rate the individuals in each advertisement regarding their physical attractiveness:

0=not attractive at all, 10=completely attractive

Advertisement 1:

Advertisement 2:

Advertisement 3:

Advertisement 4:

Advertisement 5:

Advertisement 6:

Advertisement 7:

Advertisement 8:


Appendix B

Please complete the following

1. Biological Sex: _____

2. Age: _____

3. Race:

American Indian/Alaska Native _____

Asian _____

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander _____

Black or African American _____

White _____

4. Ethnicity:

Hispanic or Latino _____

Not Hispanic or Latino _____


Appendix C

Recall Test

Directions: After you view the advertisement, please answer each question.

1) What product was being advertised?2) What was the brand of the product?3) What words or phrases do you remember from the advertisement? 4) What was the sex of the model in the advertisement?5) What was the model wearing? 6) What other objects (if any) were in the advertisement?


Appendix D

Dear Participant,

You are invited to participate in a group project conducted as part of the requirements for a class project in the Psychological Sciences department at the University of Missouri - Columbia. For this project we will be assigning each participant to view an assortment of advertisements. Each participant will be required to complete surveys and questionnaires. We are examining the effects of physical attractiveness of an individual in an advertisement, and biological sex differences of an individual viewing the ad on memory for the products in the advertisement.

The purpose of this research project is to help beginning researchers learn more about the underlying psychological processes that are apparent when consumers view advertisements on a daily basis. Information obtained will be treated confidentially.

For this project, you will examine a variety of advertisements and will be asked to answer a combination of questions concerning the content of the advertisements. There will be males and females in these advertisements. This will be achieved by completing a scale that is associated with physical attractiveness.

For this project, we will administer a selection of psychological surveys and demographic questionnaires. We will give you a list of advertisements, and we will ask you to examine each one. Lastly, we will give you multiple sheets of paper that have questions on them regarding the product attributes. We will ask you to answer the questions to the best of your ability.

The only cost associated with participating in this study is the time you could have spent elsewhere.

The study should last for about a half hour.

You must be 18 years of age or older to participate. You are free to withdraw your participation at any time should you decide to do so. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact John Bell at [email protected], or Ian Davis at [email protected]. Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

John Bell & Ian Davis

Please sign both copies, keep one copy and return one to the researcher.

___________________ _________Signature of Researcher / Date

___________________ _________

___________________ _________Signature of Participant / Date

mailto:[email protected]


For questions or problems regarding this study, please email Dr. Lisa Bauer at [email protected].


Appendix E

Information Sheet

Linking Cognitive Psychology with Consumer Behavior

Dear Participant,

This study examined the effects of physical attractiveness of an individual in an advertisement,

and biological sex differences of an individual viewing the ad on memory for the products in the

advertisement. This exploratory research addresses one important research question: does the

physical attractiveness of an individual in an advertisement have a positive or negative effect on

the recall of product attributes when biological sex differences are apparent? The importance of

this study is to inform researchers about the underlying psychological processes that are

available when individuals view advertisements. We appreciate you participating in this study,

and your responses will help expand research opportunities in cognitive psychology and

advertising. Your responses will be kept confidential.

If you have any questions about your participation in this study, please contact John Bell

([email protected]) or Ian Davis ([email protected]).

Thank you very much for your participation,

John Bell & Ian Davis

mailto:[email protected]

final research paper

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