Abstract

Infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, cause disruptions to normal lives and thus trigger various adaptive reactions. We provide evidence that visual pattern-seeking, which brings perceived control in such disruptions, is one of the adaptive responses. Across five studies, consumers primed with the perceived threat of COVID-19 increase their evaluations of visually patterned advertising images and behavioural intentions to follow visually patterned messages designed to reduce the spread of the virus. The underlying process for this effect is that visual pattern-seeking helps consumers regain control that is threatened by the perceived threat of the pandemic. These findings shed light on the role of visual patterns as an effective source of communication in the COVID-19 era.

摘要

传染病，如 COVID-19，会破坏正常生活，从而引发各种适应性反应。我们提供的证据表明，在此类中断中带来感知控制的视觉模式寻求是一种适应性反应。在五项研究中，消费者对 COVID-19 的感知威胁增加了他们对视觉图案广告图像和行为意图的评估，以遵循旨在减少病毒传播的视觉图案信息。这种影响的潜在过程是视觉模式寻求帮助消费者重新获得控制权，而这种控制权受到大流行病威胁的威胁。这些发现阐明了视觉模式在 COVID-19 时代作为有效交流来源的作用。