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Browsing by Author "Mayer, James Mark"
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Item Contingent Effects of Humor Type and Cognitive Style on Consumer Attitudes(Springer, 2016) Mayer, James Mark; Peev, Plamen; Kumar, Piyush; Kelley School of BusinessIn the spirit of examining humor contextually, we consider a basic question in this essay: do different humor types “play by the same rules,” cognitively speaking? We examine the relationship between humor and cognitive processing style, as operationalized through Need for Cognition. We find that humor based on disparagement processes “breaks through” the cognitive differences inherent in incongruity humor. Rather than exhibiting incongruity-based humor’s affective response transferring to attitude for low-NFC subjects, and more centrally-employing high NFC subjects’ higher tendency to dismiss the humor’s effect on overall attitude, disparagement based humor is processed the same by both low- and high-NFC respondents. Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between cognitive processing (as operationalized through Need for Cognition) and resultant attitudes is a complicated one, strongly contingent on humor type. Were only incongruity-based humor utilized, our findings would have reinforced Zhang’s (Psychol Mark 13:531–545, 1996b) assertion that a person’s Need for Cognition will play a key role in the evaluation of humor, but our results suggest that a more complex conceptualization of the relationship between humor and attitude formation is required when humor is treated as a potentially more complicated, context-dependent construct.Item The Efficacy of Sexualized Female Models in Young Adult-Male Oriented Cigarette Advertising(Springer, 2016) Mayer, James Mark; Baek, Tae Hyun; Kelley School of BusinessThis paper explores the portrayal (efficacy) of female models in male-targeted cigarette print advertisements through a content analysis (experiment). We first describe the presence and portrayal of females through a content analysis on male-targeted cigarette advertisements in magazines; we find that, in aggregate, females are often used as sexually attractive decoration, and the overall female portrayal is fundamentally different (and unequal) to that of the male. We next investigate the efficacy of these portrayals through an experiment among young adult-aged male smokers and nonsmokers. Our experimental findings indicate that these sexually charged advertisements generate superior attitudinal results in non-smoking males than smoking males, a finding that – in conjunction with the portrayal of females in the content analysis – suggests potential societal and public policy implications.Item The Role of Female Sexual-Self Schema in Reactions to Non-Explicit Sexual Advertising Imagery(Springer, 2017) Mayer, James Mark; Peev, Plamen; Kelley School of BusinessWe explore females’ reactions to a non-explicit, but still sexually themed, advertisement. Specifically, we consider the role of female sexual self-schema (SSS) in the identification of the level of sex present in such an advertisement, and then resultant effects on attitudes and purchase intent. We find that while SSS has no effect on the perceived level of sex present, it does influence resultant dependent variables, particularly for low-SSS females. Informed by our study and extant literature, we also offer areas for further SSS-based advertising research, particularly regarding issues of females’ perceptions of advertisement and brand fit with sexual themes.Item A Structural Equation Modeling-Based Examination of the Private Label Brand (PLB) Consumer Evaluation Process(Springer, 2016) Mayer, James Mark; Kelley School of BusinessThe goal of this paper is to answer the question “What variables influence consumer private label brand (PLB) evaluations?” We employ structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to analyze a hypothesized process by which consumer-based evaluations of retailer and product category, along with perceived risk of the category and PLB all affect the ultimate PLB brand evaluation. PLBs have been heavily researched in academic marketing research journals but SEM-based research is minimal. Research has generally been conducted using model-building techniques which are then empirically tested using real-world data. Given the complexity of the process, an alternate approach is to use experimental techniques to gain first-hand PLB data and then analyze it using appropriate methodology. The current project represents a step in that direction. While the model is subject to limitations that call its utility into question, it does provide guidance for a future, more theoretically-sound a priori model and resulting SEM analysis.