Abstract

Online video ads on video-streaming platforms interrupt viewers’ video-watching experiences, presumably triggering anger, irritation, and negative cognition. Thereby, with a theoretical framework of psychological reactance, we call scholarly attention to the role of ad choice in mitigating the negative effect of interruptions from mid-roll video ads. We propose that the effect of ad choice will be moderated by ad involvement and mediated by psychological reactance. We conducted a between-subjects experiment with a 2 (ad choice: yes versus no) × 2 (ad involvement: high versus low) design by creating a realistic digital video-streaming environment. We found that the effect of ad choice was significant only when ad involvement was low. A significant mediating role of reactance was revealed only in the relationship between ad choice and attitude toward the ads; however, the proposed moderated mediation role of psychological reactance was not significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

摘要

视频流媒体平台上的在线视频广告打断了观众的视频观看体验，可能会引发愤怒、烦躁和负面认知。因此，通过心理反应的理论框架，我们呼吁学术界关注广告选择在减轻插播视频广告中断的负面影响方面的作用。我们建议广告选择的影响将受到广告参与的调节和心理反应的调节。我们通过创建一个逼真的数字视频流环境，进行了一项采用 2（广告选择：是与否）×2（广告参与度：高与低）设计的受试者间实验。我们发现，只有当广告参与度较低时，广告选择的影响才显着。仅在广告选择和对广告的态度之间的关系中，才显示出反应的显着中介作用；然而，心理反应的调节中介作用并不显着。讨论了理论和实践意义。