Critical Reflection: Strick et al.'s (2009) paper on humour's effect on product-attitude
First, the concept of ‘humorous’ advertisements (Strick et al., 2009aa), to which the participants of the three experiments have been exposed to, is problematic. The paper did not consider that, for example, some people may have a pre-existing mood the day of the experiment, which very well affects their perception of humour. More importantly, there are different types of humour, and individuals differ in their preferences of humour-type. In the real market, outside this experimental setting, it might very well be that those who prefer dark humour will be more inclined to pick a dark-humorous product than those who prefer other types, such as physical-, self-deprecating-, surreal-, improvisional, wit-wordplay-, topical-, observational- or bodily humour (Blatchforf, 2017). These unconsidered aspects affect the final experimental tasks of rating on a 7-point scale the most but have an impact on the priming tasks (Strick et al., 2009a) as well – since seeing a non-preferred humour-type followed by a negative word makes it easier to press ‘negative’. Also, it is unclear whether the researchers’ favoured humour type(s) was/were prioritised over other types, so the experiments were subject to bias through the selection of stimulus material.
They could have posed a pre-experimental question to participants to state their favoured humour-type(s) in order to make sure they are exposed to that type – or all types but knowing which one is their preferred type, that would allow us to confirm if there is any difference between being exposed to the favourable humour-type of that individual, or to the rest of the types, when it comes to influencing brand choice. In addition, researchers should have been overlooked and advised on selecting the experimental stimulus material considering all humour-types.
Another potential pre-experimental question could have been asked participants in the beginning, to state their mood, for example with a scale from very happy to very sad. This would have allowed for controlling the pre-existing condition of mood. Also, this would have taken into account the pre-existing condition of mood, which can be affected by being exposed to humorous advertisements (e.g., one can become happier after seeing a ‘funny’ advertisement) (Stick et al., 2009b).
Second, the ‘evaluative priming task’ as an ‘immediate’ measurement of impulsive reaction (Strick et al., 2009a) is problematic. Strick et al. (2009a) introduced an evaluative priming task to participants due to it being ‘an implicit attitude measure’ (Strick et al., 2009a, p. 19), that is, the immediate measure of automatically emerging associations upon being exposed to the humorous product advertisements. Throughout the experiments, participants were asked how they perceived certain words of the ‘humorous’ advertisements (e.g., whether the word ‘pretty’ for the participant was a positive or negative word).
On one hand, although, the priming tasks were focused on reaction, including milliseconds of reaction-time, some thoughts or opinions may be beyond the effect of the impulse. Even though, impulse might have an impact on it, it is not purely it. Instead, pre-existing context of the particular individual (e.g., what he/she knows already, what he/she likes or dislikes, what he/she agrees with when it comes to topics picked up by the stimulus shown, etc.) may also play a role, when respondents retrieve their existing, encoded and sotred information (Lang, 2000). In other words, – even though the key-pressing form of data collection from participants instead of a fill-out survey made their instant response easier and therefore, faster and closer to the point where their response is based on the immediate ‘impulse’ – participant-response measures are not reliable for this type of research. Although, Strick et al. (2009a) consider faster response as stronger association, there is still the risk of participants’ conscious processes emerging during the experiment – including fae-responding (Röhner et al., 2013), leading to bias.
Instead, biological metrics – such as facial mapping, mood rings, or the recently developed EQ-Radio (Nguyen, 2016) – would have been more suitable for measuring the true impulsive reaction of participants. Although, the feeling of being surrounded or even connected to machines might change their behaviour (Bryman, 2012, p. 52-54). Yet, consumer-response – especially beyond ‘immediate’ response – remains less reliable for measuring impulsive reactions.
In summary, both, the concept of ‘humorous’, and the measurement of immediate impulse effects (Strick et al., 2009a) could be improved in the above-proposed ways of broadening the humour-types involved when it comes to the stimulus material advertisements and reviewing the tool of measurement for impulsive consumer-reaction on those stimulus materials of the experiments.
References
Blatchforf, E. (2017). There Are Nine Different Types of Humour. You Drive Health. Retrieved from https://youdrivehealth.com/9humour/
Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods (4th ed.) Oxford University Press.
Lang, A. (2000). The limited capacity model of mediated message processing. Journal of Communication, 50(1), 46-70.
Nguyen, C. (2016). This machine can read your emotions. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/this-machine-can-read-your-emotions-12f0596b-9c61-4364-842f-d32aedad8f4d/
Röhner, J., Schröder-Abé, M., & Schütz, A. (2013). What do fakers actually do to fake the IAT? An investigation of faking strategies under different faking conditions. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(4), 330-338.
Strick, M., Van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2009a). Humor in advertisements enhances product liking by mere association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(1), 35-45.
Strick, M., Holland, R. W., van Baaren, R. B., & van Knippenberg, A. (2009b). Finding comfort in a joke: Consolatory effects of humor through cognitive distraction. Emotion, 9(4), 574–578.
Comments
Post a Comment