
doi: 10.17918/d8pt0w
This dissertation research examines how an advertising model's pose that signals power (hereafter referred to as power pose) influences consumers' price perceptions. Prior research on social judgments suggests that people generally indicate submissive behavior (e.g., averting gaze and look down) when encountering with a powerful subject. Yet, little attention has been paid to how this affects consumers when marketing information is being processed. Across six studies, this research finds that displays of a model's non-verbal, dominant gestures stimulate consumers to selectively attend to and process price information. Specifically, when a model exhibits a high-power pose (vs. low-power pose), consumers are more likely to pay attention to and process price information of the products that are displayed on the bottom of an advertisement. As such, consumers indicate better price recall for the outfits and accessories displayed on the lower body. Consumers also more accurately estimate the price discount depth when the comparative price promotion appears below the image of the model in a high-power pose. In contrast, consumers indicate better price recall ability and estimation of the discount when they are visualized above the model in a low-power pose. This effect of power pose occurs both when an image of a model is presented and when an actual model displays power, whether high or low, through their pose. However, the effect of power pose reverses when the model's face is not visible. When the face is eliminated, consumers are not dominated by the power of the pose, and as such do not display submissive behavior. Instead they attend more to the model's upper body than the lower body to garner more information about the model. Therefore, consumers indicate better performance in recalling price information of apparel displayed on the upper body as opposed to those on the lower body when they encounter a high-power pose with the absence of the face. The mediating role of anxiety is introduced as a potential underlying mechanism. This research provides insights to help marketers identify ideal locations for displaying price information when using a model in advertising, and for in-store displays.
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
