Gotcha! Realism of Comedic Violence And Its Impact on Brand Responses

Abstract

ABSTRACT Two experimental studies in Poland examined how perceived and manipulated realism of comedic violence may influence consumer responses to brands. Disposition to laughter, measured by katagelasticism (the joy of laughing at others), gelotophilia (the joy of being laughed at), and gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at), was included as a potentially important factor in driving individual responsiveness to humorous messages. The results reveal that highly violent humor—compared with less violent humor—lowered perceptions of realism and produced negative brand attitudes. Manipulated realism led to less positive attitudes than manipulated unrealism in a high comedic violence condition but had no effect on brand evaluations when comedic violence was low. In both studies, the effects of realism on brand attitudes grew with increasing levels of katagelasticism and gelotophilia.