(The) effect of message meaningfulness on attitudes towards a mixed emotions ad

Abstract

This research sheds light on the impact of meaningfulness on mixed emotions in advertising. In our experiment, we show that consistent with past literature, participants experienced feelings of conflict when encountering mixed emotional appeals, however eliciting meaningfulness resulted in not only significantly less feelings of conflict, but positive attitudes towards mixed emotional appeals as well. Participants who experience high levels of meaningfulness from the mixed emotions appeal also felt less feelings of conflict, as well as more positive attitudes towards the appeals as opposed to individuals who elicited lower levels of meaningfulness from the mixed emotions appeal. Additionally, we further examine the moderating effect of duality on attitudes towards the mixed emotions appeal documented in past literature.