Processing Fluency Research Articles

How best to advertise low-fit brand extensions: a construal level theory perspective

PurposeLow-fit brand extensions offer several potential benefits, yet their success is challenging. Building on construal level theory, this study aims to investigate how different advertising appeals can improve the evaluations of low-fit brand extensions through two different processes (cognitive and affective).Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments were conducted with US consumers. Study 1 used a 2 (extension fit: high, low) × 2 (ad appeal: abstract, concrete) between-subjects design. Study 2 applied a 2 (brand associations: promotion, prevention) × 2 (ad appeal: promotion, prevention) between-subjects design. Multivariate analyses and follow-up means comparisons were used to analyse data.FindingsStudy 1 found that an abstract ad appeal is more effective for promoting low-fit brand extension because it improves the perception of fit. Study 2 showed promotion vs prevention ad appeals lead to better evaluation of low-fit brand extensions when matched with parent brand associations (promotion vs prevention) in terms of construal level. This matching effect is underpinned by processing fluency.Research limitations/implicationsAd appeals can influence low-fit brand extension evaluation by influencing the perception of fit (cognitive process) or processing fluency (affective process). Future research could consider different ad appeals and other construal related factors to generalise these findings.Practical implicationsMarketers can design different ad appeals to effectively advertise low-fit brand extensions. These findings can guide managers in the development of effective advertising strategies.Originality/valueThis research offers a new perspective on how ad appeals can enhance low-fit brand extension evaluation.

Abstract or concrete? The effects of language style and service context on continuous usage intention for AI voice assistants

The unprecedented growth in voice assistants (VAs) provided with artificial intelligence (AI) challenges managers aiming to harness various new technologies to enhance the competitiveness of their products. This article thus investigates how VAs can more effectively improve the user experience by focusing on the attributes of service contexts, matching a utilitarian-dominant (hedonic-dominant) context with concrete (abstract) language in VA–human interactions. Through such matching, VA companies can potentially create a beneficial congruity effect, leading to more favorable evaluations. The results of three studies therefore suggest that users prefer VAs with abstract language in a hedonic-dominant service context, but that VAs with concrete language are more competitive in a utilitarian-dominant service context. Furthermore, the perception of processing fluency mediates this effect. Accordingly, these findings provide a better understanding of AI–human interactions and open a straightforward path for managers or technology providers to enhance users’ continuous usage intention.

From pixels to engagement: examining the impact of image resolution in cause-related marketing on Instagram

PurposeThis study aims to examine the visual effects of cause-related marketing (CM) posts on Instagram, with a focus on image resolution and consumer engagement.Design/methodology/approachThree studies were conducted through an experimental design. Study 1 (N = 155) uncovered the mediation underlying the effects of image quality (low and high image resolution). Study 2 (N = 160) replicated the findings of the first study and extended the investigation by examining the mediator (fluency) and moderator (visual sensitivity). Study 3 (N = 291) further extended the effects of image resolution by demonstrating its interactive effects with the visual complexity of an Instagram post design in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment.FindingsThe serial mediation analysis demonstrated that high image resolution CM posts yielded more favorable evaluations in terms of brand credibility and information costs saved, subsequently leading to positive brand attitudes, purchase intentions and increased Instagram engagement. Processing fluency mediated image effects on brand credibility, while individual differences in visual sensitivity moderated the image effects. The image resolution effects were greater for visually complex CM posts compared to simple ones.Originality/valueTo one's best knowledge, little to no research has examined the image quality of Instagram posts in the context of CM and the extent to which such visual cues can affect consumers' brand evaluations and engagement on the platform.Research implicationsDespite its practical significance, there exists a notable gap in understanding the specific role of CM posts on Instagram and the impact of visual elements on consumer behaviors. The current research findings aim to bridge the research gap.

Investigating the effect of nativeness and speaker age on the credibility of spoken sentences

Previous studies found mixed results regarding a bias in credibility ratings for trivia statements made by L2 speakers in comparison to L1 speakers. Perceptual fluency, social attitudes, and pragmatic lenience have been proposed as underlying causes for the bias. The present study examined credibility ratings for L2 speakers and extended the scope of the investigation by adding the factor age of the speaker. In the present study, German native adult listeners were asked to judge the credibility of trivia statements recorded by L2 adults and L1 children in Experiment 1 and statements by L1 adults and L1 children in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, the ratings showed no difference in credibility between the L2 adult statements and the L1 child statements. In Experiment 2, listeners rated statements from L1 child speakers as more credible than statements from L1 adult speakers, suggesting a positive bias for the credibility of children. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance for previously suggested causes contributing to a credibility bias.

Embracing beauty through leftward movements: An ERP study on metaphorical association between hand actions and aesthetic judgments

In this study, we examined the metaphorical association between aesthetic judgments of faces and horizontal hand movements as well as their cognitive neural mechanisms using a joint categorical response task. In the “aesthetic-action” metaphorical representation situation, participants were asked to classify beautiful/ugly faces by moving the mouse to the left or the right. The results showed that the joint categorization condition “judge beautiful-move mouse left, judge ugly-move mouse right” had a shorter reaction time than the “judge beautiful-move mouse right, judge ugly-move mouse left” condition, which was accompanied by larger amplitudes of the early component N170, EPN, and the late component P300. Combining the behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) results, the present study demonstrated a metaphorical association between horizontal hand actions and aesthetic judgments. It suggested that horizontal hand actions can affect the speed of aesthetic judgments by influencing processing fluency, emotional arousal level, categorization motivation, and attentional resources. These findings provide new perspectives to better understand the cognitive process of aesthetic judgments and provide a basis for applying embodied cognition and metaphor theory to the field of aesthetic psychology.

A New Paradigm for Visual Communication in the Convergence of Digital Media and Art and Design

Abstract This paper integrates motion graphics into the field of visual communication art design. Hierarchical analysis is utilized to calculate the comprehensive weight ranking of each dynamic graphic design element at the sub-criteria level and to understand the real needs of users from the perspective of user needs and experience design. The relationship between dynamic graphics and emotional relief is explored by comparing the data of the emotional self-assessment scale of the experimental and control groups. After analysis, it can be seen that the perceptual attribute (0.43587) is the most important indicator of perceptual fluency in dynamic graphic design and the most important issue that should be considered in the design, followed by the aesthetic attribute (0.28816). In the analysis of user requirements, content that is vivid, interesting, and colorful accounts for a mean value of 60%. As the use of motion graphics design expands, it will undoubtedly become one of the most basic, versatile, and universal ways of visual communication and artistic expression.

The interactive effect of processing fluency and information credibility on donation in the digital philanthropy context

The interactive effect of processing fluency and information credibility on donation in the digital philanthropy context

사회적 크라우딩과 전문가 생성 콘텐츠가 소비자 정보 채택에 미치는 영향

Social media marketing has become an integral part of integrated marketing communications, playing a significant role in establishing strong relationships between businesses and consumers. The study focuses on categorizing content generated by professional bloggers into experiential and promotional types, considering that consumers’ levels of product information and risk perception vary, influencing their intent to adopt information.
 Therefore, businesses should select appropriate environments based on the type of product content to enhance consumer’ willingness to adopt information. Consequently, the exploration of how to effectively increase consumers’ intent to adopt information by selecting environments is a relevant issue. In this study, the common social phenomenon of social crowding is explored visually, applying the heuristic-systematic model theory. The study investigates the impact of social crowding and professional blogger content types on consumers’ intent to adopt information. The research hypotheses were validated through three experiments, demonstrating that the interaction effect between professional user-generated content types and social crowding influences consumer information adoption. Furthermore, information processing fluency showed a mediating effect on the impact of professional generated content types and social crowding on consumer information adoption. The study also verified a moderating effect of consume knowledge levels on the interaction effect between professional generated content types and social crowding on consumer information adoption.
 Theoretically, this study enriches research in the fields of social crowding and content marketing, providing insights for businesses in formulating marketing strategies. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate social crowding situations for various types of content marketing activities.

Up or down? The effect of vertical display on consumers’ attitude toward recycled product advertisements

Recycled products are the products derived from remanufacturing waste materials. This research investigates how the vertical position of recycled products relative to their raw materials changes consumers' evaluation of recycled products advertisement. Across three experimental studies, this research demonstrates that under the metaphorical effect of "recycled products-up, raw materials-down", when the recycled products are displayed above their raw materials instead of below, consumers can perceive higher processing fluency, and thus better attitude toward the recycled products advertisements. However, placing products in a higher vertical position does not always lead to better consumer response. For consumers with low metaphor accessibility of "recycled products-up, raw materials-down", the effect of vertical position on processing fluency attenuates, resulting lower consumer attitude. Our findings advance existing knowledge about the recycled products, and provide enlightening suggestions for how marketers promote their recycled products effectively.

The relevance of syntactic complexity for truth judgments: A registered report

Fluency theories predict higher truth judgments for easily processed statements. We investigated two factors relevant for processing fluency: repetition and syntactic complexity. In three online experiments, we manipulated syntactic complexity by creating simple and complex versions of trivia statements. Experiments 1 and 2 replicated the repetition-based truth effect. However, syntactic complexity did not affect truth judgments although complex statements were processed slower than simple statements. This null effect is surprising given that both studies had high statistical power and varied in the relative salience of syntactic complexity. Experiment 3 provides a preregistered test of the discounting explanation by using improved trivia statements of equal length and by manipulating the salience of complexity in a randomized design. As predicted by fluency theories, simple statements were more likely judged as true than complex ones, while this effect was small and not moderated by the salience of complexity.

Retrieval fluency inflates perceived preparation for difficult problems

ABSTRACT When faced with a difficult problem, people often rely on past experiences. While remembering clearly helps us reach solutions, can retrieval also lead to misperceptions of our abilities? In three experiments, participants encountered “worst case scenarios” they likely had never experienced and that would be difficult to navigate without extensive training (e.g., bitten by snake). Learning brief tips improved problem-solving performance later, but retrieval increased feelings of preparation by an even larger margin. This gap occurred regardless of whether people thought that tips came from an expert or another participant in the study, and it did not reflect mere familiarity with the problems themselves. Instead, our results suggest that the ease experienced while remembering, or retrieval fluency, inflated feelings of preparation.

Fluency, prediction and motivation: how processing dynamics, expectations and epistemic goals shape aesthetic judgements.

What psychological mechanisms underlie aesthetic judgements? An influential account known as the Hedonic Marking of Fluency, later developed into a Processing Fluency Theory of Aesthetic Pleasure, posits that ease of processing elicits positive feelings and thus enhances stimulus evaluations. However, the theory faces empirical and conceptual challenges. In this paper, we extend it by integrating insights from predictive processing frameworks (PPF) and the epistemic motivation model (EMM). We propose four extensions. First, fluency of a stimulus depends on perceivers' expectations-their internal model of the world. Second, perceivers also form expectations about fluency itself and thus can experience surprising fluency. These expectations can come from the individual's history, their current task and their environment. Third, perceivers can value fluency but also disfluency, reflecting their non-directional epistemic goals. Fourth, perceivers also have directional epistemic goals, preferring specific conclusions or belief content. Consequently, affective reactions depend on whether the stimulus satisfies those goals. These directional epistemic goals may override concerns about fluency or change the value of fluency associated with specific content. We review supporting evidence and introduce novel predictions. By integrating insights from PPF and EMM, our framework can better capture established fluency effects and highlights their limitations and extensions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

Parallelisms and deviations: two fundamentals of an aesthetics of poetic diction.

Poetic diction routinely involves two complementary classes of features: (i) parallelisms, i.e. repetitive patterns (rhyme, metre, alliteration, etc.) that enhance the predictability of upcoming words, and (ii) poetic deviations that challenge standard expectations/predictions regarding regular word form and order. The present study investigated how these two prediction-modulating fundamentals of poetic diction affect the cognitive processing and aesthetic evaluation of poems, humoristic couplets and proverbs. We developed quantitative measures of these two groups of text features. Across the three text genres, higher deviation scores reduced both comprehensibility and aesthetic liking whereas higher parallelism scores enhanced these. The positive effects of parallelism are significantly stronger than the concurrent negative effects of the features of deviation. These results are in accord with the hypothesis that art reception involves an interplay of prediction errors and prediction error minimization, with the latter paving the way for processing fluency and aesthetic liking. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

Why can’t you be all talk to get things done? Consumer acceptance of voice-assisted products

PurposeVoice assistant technology represents one of the most radical artificial intelligence innovations. Drawing on the processing fluency theory and consumer learning literature, this study aims to explore how consumer acceptance of new products is influenced by voice assistant function (VAF), along with the impacts of role clarity and learning modality.Design/methodology/approachFour between-subjects experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 tested the main effect of VAF on consumer acceptance. Study 2 included role clarity as a mediator between VAF and consumer acceptance. Study 3 examined the moderation effect of learning modality and contrasted the effectiveness of experiential and verbal learning in helping increase consumer acceptance. Study 4, as a post hoc study, tested serial mediations to validate whether processing fluency was indeed the mechanism explaining the indirect relationship between VAF and consumer acceptance via role clarity.FindingsThe negative impact of VAF on consumer acceptance was demonstrated in all four studies. Studies 2 and 3 showed VAF decreased role clarity which further influenced consumer acceptance. Moreover, Study 3 evidenced that experiential learning was more effective than verbal learning in increasing consumer acceptance of voice-assisted products via role clarity. Study 4 demonstrated that VAF decreased role clarity, which in turn decreased processing fluency, leading to lower consumer acceptance.Originality/valueThis research views the usage of voice-assisted products as a coproduction process between consumers and the VAF. Accordingly, findings provide novel insights into processing fluency of tasks assisted by VAF through the lens of role clarity and learning modality, which enriches the understanding of potential barriers and opportunities for consumers to accept voice-assisted products.

From easy to known: How fluent brand processing fosters self‐brand connection

AbstractIn most marketplaces, brands face fierce competition. Those that are adopted into consumers' self‐concepts in the form of a strong self‐brand connection reap myriad benefits including more positive evaluations, increased purchase intentions, and greater customer loyalty. This research tests the premise that the processing fluency of two prominent branding elements, brand name and logo, may promote self‐brand connection. A series of three studies indicates that processing fluency, prompted either through repeated exposure to a logo (Study 1) or more easily processed brand names (Studies 2 and 3), is associated with a stronger self‐brand connection. Evidence across the studies supports that the sense of brand familiarity stemming from fluent assessment promotes narrative processes in which the brand is connected to aspects of one's life and that such narrative processing, in turn, leads to the formation of stronger self‐brand connections. Further, such evidence is provided via direct measures of self‐brand connections, investigation of consumers brand narratives, and hemostatic brain response as measured via functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Snyre for your nasal congestion: Using phonesthemes to imbue non‐word brand names with meaning

AbstractA brand name is a fundamental component of a brand's identity. This research introduces a novel linguistic tool for brand name creation: phonesthemes—sound and spelling letter clusters that are associated with one dominant meaning. For instance, sn, one of over 140 phonesthemes in English, consistently appears in words related to the nose or breathing (sneeze, sniff, snort). Six experiments reveal positive effects of phonesthemic non‐word brand names (e.g., Glif; gl‐; e.g., glow, glimmer; meaning “light”) on consumer preference, attitude, purchase intent, and choice when the dominant meaning activated by the phonestheme is semantically congruent with the product category or product attribute (e.g., luminant car wax), due to enhanced processing fluency. Phonological (sound) and orthographic (spelling) priming are eliminated as alternative explanations for the phenomenon. This research advances psycholinguistic research in marketing and the emerging area of brand linguistics by broadening the focus beyond brand name phonology.

The Effect of Odd Price on Purchasing Decisions Mediated by Processing Fluency

Setting odd prices is one of the pricing strategies applied in retail. Setting odd prices can help one of their goals, which is to get more customers. It is a tool that companies use to influence consumer buying decisions. Consumer purchasing decisions are a reason for how consumers determine the choice of purchasing a product in accordance with their needs, desires, and expectations so that it can lead to satisfaction with product dissatisfaction and odd prices can have an impact on setting odd prices because it can make consumers feel satisfied and benefited and can lead to customer satisfaction. Ease of calculation fluency (processing fluency) will change their price perception and increase purchase intention for a final price that is consistent between the original price and the selling price is much cheaper than under inconsistent conditions, even though the magnitude of the discount under conditions of consistent final prices is lower than under inconsistent final price conditions. This research is a quantitative study and the respondents in this study were 100 respondents. In this study, the samples were taken by means of nonprobability sampling, namely by accidental sampling technique. Based on data analysis, it is known that there is an effect of odd prices on purchasing decisions, there is an effect of processing fluency on purchasing decisions and processing fluency mediates the relationship between odd prices and purchasing decisions.

Do Visual Perspectives Matter? The “Matching” Between Visual Perspectives and Psychological Distance Improves Hotel Evaluations

The present research explores the interplay of visual perspectives and psychological distance in consumer hotel evaluation. Across three studies, the results indicated that if consumers perceive a hotel to be psychologically distal, they process the hotel information more fluently and consequently evaluate the hotel more favorably when exterior pictures are provided than when interior pictures are available. On the contrary, if consumers perceive a hotel to be psychologically proximal, this effect would be reversed. The effect is driven by a “matching” between consumers’ psychological distance from the hotel (i.e., proximal vs. distant) and the types of information available (i.e., interior vs. exterior pictures) that generates a high level of processing fluency. Our findings provide actionable suggestions for hotel marketing professionals concerning how to display a hotel product with different pictures depending on its specific distance attributes.

Distance Brings About Beauty: When Does the Influence of Positive Travel Online Reviews Grow Stronger Relative to Negative Reviews?

Prior research has demonstrated that negative online reviews have a greater impact than positive online reviews on tourists’ purchase decisions. However, building on the construal level theory, this study proposes a new perspective, suggesting that positive online reviews are more influential in distant-future trips, and negative online reviews are more influential in near-future trips. These effects (i) occur because tourists generate experiences of processing fluency from a construal fit between the construal level of reviews with different valence and the temporal distance of tourists’ trips, and (ii) are significant for tourists who are reading reviews on large screen devices, but not for those using small screen devices. This study demonstrates the importance of temporal distance in eliminating the robust negativity bias, offering novel insight into existing research on persuasion. These findings provide new references for tourism enterprises managing the detrimental effects of negative online reviews in multi-screen times.

Disfluency attenuates the reception of pseudoprofound and postmodernist bullshit

Four studies explore the role of perceptual fluency in attenuating bullshit receptivity, or the tendency for individuals to rate otherwise meaningless statements as “profound”. Across four studies, we presented participants with a sample of pseudoprofound bullshit statements in either a fluent or disfluent font and found that overall, disfluency attenuated bullshit receptivity while also finding little evidence that this effect was moderated by cognitive thinking style. In all studies, we measured participants’ cognitive reflection, need for cognition, faith in intuition, and superstitious beliefs. Superstition strongly predicted bullshit receptivity regardless of fluency. Inconclusive results were found for the remaining scales. Potential links for the role of perceptual disfluency in promoting analytic thinking are discussed.