The Examination of Threat and Affiliative Tendencies through Pronoun Usage in Relation to Consumer Evaluations
Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: This study further examines the relationship between threat and affiliative tendencies. Under threat, there is a tendency to embrace others in efforts to reduce threat and uncertainty. This study explores whether product advertisements that use inclusive pronouns (e.g., we, our) lead products to be perceived as more attractive/valuable under threat (compared to low threat). Therefore, this study employs a 2 (threat: low vs. high) X 2 (ad reference frame: inclusive pronouns vs. 3rd person) between-subjects design. Data from 145 university student participants were collected. To manipulate threat, participants were told they would be taking part in a learning exercise and were "randomly" assigned the role of the "learner", while a participant in another room would act as the "teacher" who would administer the punishment/reinforcement (e.g., sound blasts) to the "learner". Participants viewed one of two versions of an advertisement for a hypothetical product. We expect that participants in the inclusive pronoun condition will evaluate the product more positively and that the positive impact of inclusive pronoun use will be stronger under high levels of threat. Analyses for the primary hypotheses revealed some support and many exploratory analyses revealed significant results
Author: Sarah M. DiGioia
Institution: Cleveland State University
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2409432549