ABSTRACT

We tend to look for, interpret, and remember information consistent with our beliefs and attitudes. This tendency toward biased information processing has been extensively studied in relation to long-standing, deeply held beliefs and attitudes about a given substantive issue. However, what about thoughts and attitudes that are induced by visual cues? Do people still process information in a biased manner based on their initial responses to newly encountered information? The purpose of this research is to investigate how varying product visuals affect consumers’ selective exposure, and to what extent cognitive responses to the visual appearance of a product and attitudes toward a newly encountered brand can mediate such visual biasing effects. We demonstrate how consumers generate visual-based thoughts and choose to read reviews that support their newly formed beliefs and attitudes. In addition, we also investigate whether individual differences in the need for cognition moderate the influence of brand attitudes on selective exposure. The results confirm that product visual appeals influence the relative amount of positive thoughts consumers generate and people in higher need for cognition tend to show greater selective exposure to reviews consistent with their attitudes.

摘要

我们倾向于寻找、解释和记住与我们的信念和态度一致的信息。这种有偏见的信息处理趋势已经被广泛研究，与对给定实质性问题的长期存在的、根深蒂固的信念和态度有关。然而，由视觉线索诱发的想法和态度呢？人们是否仍然根据他们对新遇到的信息的初始反应以有偏见的方式处理信息？本研究的目的是调查不同的产品视觉效果如何影响消费者的选择性曝光，以及对产品视觉外观的认知反应和对新遇到的品牌的态度可以在多大程度上调节这种视觉偏见效应。我们展示了消费者如何产生基于视觉的想法并选择阅读支持他们新形成的信念和态度的评论。此外，我们还调查了认知需求的个体差异是否会调节品牌态度对选择性曝光的影响。结果证实，产品的视觉吸引力会影响消费者产生的积极想法的相对数量，并且对认知有更高需求的人倾向于表现出更多的选择性接触与其态度一致的评论。