Exploring a New Typology of Emotional Appeals: Basic, versus Social, Emotional Advertising

Abstract

This study examines a new typology of emotional appeals in terms of consumers' similarity of response. Basic emotions are universal due to their being instinctual biological reactions shared by all human beings. Alternatively, social emotions are culturally specific because they are the social reactions acquired at a later stage of human development. Basic emotional appeals are found to generate more similar emotional and evaluative responses in consumers compared to social emotional appeals. Thus, this study suggests that basic emotions can be used to capitalize on the similarity, while social emotions can be used to capitalize on the uniqueness, among consumers.