Making Unique Choices or Being Like Others: How Priming Self-concepts Influnces Advertising Effectiveness

Abstract

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that priming independent and interdependent self-concepts affects responses to advertisements. In Experiment 1, for a privately consumed product, the influence of product assortment size on ad effectiveness was moderated by the accessibility of these self-concepts. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for a publicly consumed product and also examined an additional ad feature, consensus information. Ad effectiveness was enhanced by larger product assortment only when the independent self-concept was primed and by the presence of consensus information only when the interdependent self-concept was primed.