Those who laugh are defenseless: How humor breaks resistance to influence

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

Volumn 18, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 213-223

  Strick, Madelijn ^a,b   Holland, Rob W ^a   van Baaren, Rick B ^a   van Knippenberg, Ad ^a  

^a RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN   (Netherlands)

^b UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Advertising; Brand Associations; Brand Preference; Humor; Resistance

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ADVERTIZING; ARTICLE; ASSOCIATION; CLINICAL TRIAL; CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL; CONTROLLED STUDY; FEMALE; HUMAN; HUMOR; LANGUAGE; MALE; MEMORY; NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL;

ADOLESCENT; ADVERTISING AS TOPIC; ASSOCIATION; FEMALE; HUMANS; LANGUAGE; LAUGHTER; MALE; MEMORY; WIT AND HUMOR AS TOPIC; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84867888801     PISSN: 1076898X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0028534     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. Aaker, D. A., Stayman, D., & Hagerty, M. R. (1986). Warmth in advertising: Measurement, impact and sequence effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 12, 365-381. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/254299
2. Aaker, D. A. (1991). Managing brand equity: Capitalising on the value of a brand name. New York, NY: Free Press. doi:10.2307/1252048
3. Alba, J. W., Hutchinson, J. W., & Lynch, Jr., J. G. (1991). Memory and decision making. In T. S. Robertson and. H. H. Kassarjian (Eds.), Handbook of consumer behavior (pp. 1-49). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
4. Alden, D. L., Hoyer, W. D., & Lee, C. (1993). Identifying global and culture specific dimensions of humor in advertising: A multinational analysis. Journal of Marketing, 57, 64-75. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1252027 doi:10.2307/1252027
5. Alden, D. L., Mukerjee, A., & Hoyer, W. D. (2000). The effects of incongruity, surprise and positive moderators on perceived humor in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 29, 1-15. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4189138
6. Andrade, E. B. (2005). Behavioral consequences of affect: Combining evaluative and regulatory mechanisms. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 355-362. doi:10.1086/497546
7. Baeyens, F., Eelen, P., Crombez, G., & Van den Bergh, O. (1992). Human evaluative conditioning: Acquisition trials, presentation schedule, evaluative style and contingency awareness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 30, 133-142. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(92)90136-
8. Bargh, J. A. (2002). Losing consciousness: Automatic influences on consumer judgment, behavior, and motivation. Journal of Consumer Research, 29, 280-285. doi:10.1086/341577
9. Baumeister, R., Vohs, K., & Funder, D. (2007). Psychology as the science of self-reports and finger movements: Whatever happened to actual behavior? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 396-403. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00051.x
10. Bawa, K., & Shoemaker, R. (1989). Analyzing incremental sales from a direct mail coupon promotion. Journal of Marketing, 53, 66-78. doi: 10.2307/1251343
11. Brehm, J. W. (1966). A theory of psychological reactance. New York, NY: Academic Press.
12. Briñol, P., Rucker, D., Tormala, Z. L., & Petty, R. E. (2004). Individual differences in resistance to persuasion: The role of beliefs and metabeliefs. In E. S. Knowles & J. A. Linn (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 83-104). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
13. Broniarczyk, S. M., & Alba, J. W. (1994). The importance of the brand in brand extension. Journal of Marketing Research, 31, 214-228. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3152195 doi:10.2307/3152195
14. Burkley, E. (2008). The role of self-control in resistance to persuasion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 419-431. doi:10.1177/ 0146167207310458
15. Bushman, B. J. (2005). Violence and sex in television programs do not sell products in advertisements. Psychological Science, 16, 702-708. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01599.x
16. Cacioppo, J. T., Gardner, W. L., & Berntson, G. G. (1997). Beyond bipolar conceptualizations and measures: The case of attitudes and evaluative space. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1, 3-25. doi:10.1207/
17. Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing in the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 752-766. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.5.752
18. Chartrand, T. L. (2005). The role of conscious awareness in consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15, 203-210. doi:10.1207/ s15327663jcp1503_4
19. Cline, T. W., & Kellaris, J. J. (1999). The joint impact of humor and argument strength in a print advertising context: A case for weaker arguments. Psychology & Marketing, 16, 69-86. doi:10.1002/ (SICI)1520-6793(199901)16:1<69::AID-MAR5>3.0.CO;2-9
20. Davis, B. P., & Knowles, E. S. (1999). A Disrupt-Then-Reframe technique of social influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 192-199. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.192
21. De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., & Baeyens, F. (2001). Associative learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 853-869. doi:10.1037/00332909.127.6.853
22. De Houwer, J. (2006). Using the Implicit Association Test does not rule out an impact of conscious propositional knowledge on evaluative conditioning. Learning and Motivation, 37, 176-187. doi:10.1016/j.lmot.2005.12.002
23. Eisend, M. (2009). A meta-analysis of humor in advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37, 191-203. doi:10.1007/s11747-0080096-y
24. Eisend, M. (2011). How humor in advertising works: A meta-analytic test of alternative models. Marketing Letters, 22, 115-132. doi:10.1007/ s11002-010-9116-z
25. Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229-238. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.229
26. Fazio, R. H. (2001). On the automatic activation of associated evaluations: An overview. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 115-141. doi:10.1080/ 0269993004200024
27. Fennis, B. M., Das, E. H. H. J., & Pruyn, A. T. H. (2004). If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with nonsense: Extending the impact of the Disrupt-Then-Reframe technique of social influence. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14, 280-290. doi:10.1207/ s15327663jcp1403_9
28. Festinger, L., & Maccoby, N. (1964). On resistance to persuasive communications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 68, 359-366. doi:10.1037/ h0049073
29. Friese, M., Hofmann, W., & Schmitt, M. (2008). When and why do implicit measures predict behavior? Empirical evidence for the moderating role of opportunity, motivation, and process reliance. European Review of Social Psychology, 19, 285-338. doi:10.1080/ 10463280802556958
30. Friestad, M., & Wright, P. (1994). The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How people cope with persuasion attempts. Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 1-31. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489738 doi: 10.1086/209380
31. Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2006). Associative and propositional processes in evaluation: An integrative review of implicit and explicit attitude change. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 692-731. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.5.692
32. Gelb, B. D., & Zinkhan, G. M. (1986). Humor and advertising effectiveness after repeated exposures to a radio commercial. Journal of Advertising, 15, 15-20.
33. Gibson, B. (2008). Can evaluative conditioning change attitudes toward mature brands? New evidence from the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 178-188. doi:10.1086/527341
34. Gilbert, D. T., Krull, D. S., & Malone, P. S. (1993). You can't not believe everything you read. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 221-233. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.2.221
35. Gilbert, D. T. (1991). How mental systems believe. American Psychologist, 46, 107-119. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.46.2.107
36. Greenwald, A. G., & Leavitt, C. (1984). Audience involvement in advertising: Four levels. Journal of Consumer Research, 11, 581-592. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489145 doi:10.1086/208994
37. Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271-299. doi:10.1037/ 1089-2680.2.3.271
38. Gulas, C. S., & Weinberger, M. G. (2006). Humor in advertising: A comprehensive analysis. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.
39. Hansen, J., Strick, M., Van Baaren, R. B., Hooghuis, M., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2009). Exploring memory for product names advertised with humour. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 8, 135-148. doi:10.1002/ cb.278
40. Hermans, D., Spruyt, A., De Houwer, J., & Eelen, P. (2003). Affective priming with subliminally presented pictures. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 97-114.
41. Hyman, M. R., Tansey, R., & Clark, J. W. (1990). Research on advertising ethics: Past, present, and future. Journal of Advertising, 23, 5-15. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4188934
42. Jacks, J. Z., & Devine, P. G. (2000). Attitude importance, forewarning of message content, and resistance to persuasion. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 22, 19-29. Retrieved from http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/01973533.asp
43. Jacks, J. Z., & O'Brien, M. E. (2004). Decreasing resistance by affirming the self. In E. S. Knowles & J. A. Linn (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 235-257). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers
44. Keating, J. P., & Brock, T. C. (1974). Acceptance of persuasion and the inhibition of counterargumentation under various distraction tasks. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 301-309. doi:10.1016/00221031(74)90027-4
45. Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customerbased brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57, 1-22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1252054 doi:10.2307/1252054
46. Knowles, E. S., & Linn, J. A. (2004). Resistance and persuasion. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
47. Krishnan, H. S., & Chakravarti, D. (2003). A process analysis of the effects of humorous advertising executions on brand claims memory. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13, 230-245. doi:10.1207/S15327663JCP1303_05
48. MacKenzie, S. B., Lutz, R. J., & Belch, G. E. (1986). The role of attitude toward the ad as a mediator of advertising effectiveness: A test of competing explanations. Journal of Marketing Research, 23, 130-143. doi:10.2307/3151660
49. Maison, D., Greenwald, A. G., & Bruin, R. H. (2004). Predictive validity of the Implicit Association Test in studies of brands, consumer attitudes, and behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14, 405-415. doi: 10.1207/s15327663jcp1404_9
50. Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press.
51. McGuire, W. J. (1964). Inducing resistance to persuasion: Some contemporary approaches. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 191-229). New York, NY: Academic Press. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60052-0
52. McGuire, W. J. (1978). An Information processing model of advertising effectiveness. In H. L. Davis & A. J. Silk (Eds.), Behavioral and management sciences in marketing (pp. 156-180). New York, NY: Ronald Press.
53. Meyers-Levy, J., & Sternthal, B. (1993). A two-factor explanation of assimilation and contrast effects. Journal of Marketing Research, 30, 359-368. doi:10.2307/3172887
54. Nabi, R. L., Moyer-Guse, E., & Byrne, S. (2007). All joking aside: A serious investigation into the persuasive effect of funny social issue messages. Communication Monographs, 74, 29-54. doi:10.1080/ 03637750701196896
55. Norris, C. J., Gollan, J., Berntson, G. G., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2010). The current status of research on the structure of evaluative space. Biological Psychology, 84, 422-436. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.03.011
56. Olson, J. C., & Dover, P. A. (1978). Cognitive effects of deceptive advertising. Journal of Marketing Research, 15, 29-38. doi:10.2307/ 3150398
57. Osterhouse, R. A., & Brock, T. C. (1970). Distraction increases yielding to propaganda by inhibiting counter-arguing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 344-358. doi:10.1037/h0029598
58. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123205. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2
59. Pleyers, G., Corneille, O., Luminet, O., & Yzerbyt, V. (2007). Aware and (dis)liking: Item-based analyses reveal that valence acquisition via evaluative conditioning emerges only when there is contingency awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 130-144. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.33.1.130
60. Pratkanis, A. R., Greenwald, A. G., Leippe, M. R., & Baumgardner, M. H. (1988). In search of reliable effects: III. The sleeper effect is dead. Long live the sleeper effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 203-218. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.2.203
61. Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic mechanisms of humor. Boston, MA: D. Reidel.
62. Robinson, M. D., & Kirkeby, B. S. (2005). Happiness as a belief system: Individual differences and priming in emotion judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1134-1144. doi:10.1177/ 0146167204274081
63. Robinson, M. D., Ode, S., Moeller, S. K., & Goetz, P. W. (2007). Neuroticism and affective priming: Evidence for a neuroticism-linked negative schema. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 1221-1231. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.027
64. Sagarin, B. J., Cialdini, R. B., Rice, W. E., & Serna, S. B. (2002). Dispelling the illusion of invulnerability: The motivations and mechanisms of resistance to persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 526-541. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.526
65. Schindler, R. M. (1992). A coupon is more than a low price: Evidence from a shopping-simulation study. Psychology & Marketing, 9, 431-451. doi:10.1002/mar.4220090603
66. Shabbir, H., & Thwaites, D. (2007). The use of humor to mask deceptive advertising: It's no laughing matter. Journal of Advertising, 36, 75-85. doi:10.2753/JOA0091-3367360205
67. Shakarchi, R. J., & Haugtvedt, C. P. (2004). Differentiating individual differences in resistance to persuasion. In E. S. Knowles & J. A. Linn (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 105-113). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
68. Sherman, S. J., Crawford, M. T., & McConnell, A. R. (2004). Looking ahead as a technique to reduce resistance to persuasive attempts. In E. Knowles and J. Linn (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 149-174). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
69. Shimp, T. A. (2003). Advertising: Promotion, and supplemental aspects of integrated marketing communications. Mason, OH: Thomson SouthWestern.
70. Skalski, P., Tamborini, R., Glazer, E., & Smith, S. (2009). Effects of humor on presence and recall of persuasive messages. Communication Quarterly, 57, 136-153. doi:10.1080/01463370902881619
71. Slater, M. D. (2002). Involvement as goal-directed strategic processing: Extending the Elaboration Likelihood Model. In J. P. Dillard & M. Pfau (Eds.), The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 175-194). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
72. Spotts, H. E., Weinberger, M. G., & Parsons, A. L. (1997). Assessing the use and impact of humor on advertising effectiveness: A contingency approach. Journal of Advertising, 26, 17-32. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4189039
73. Strahan, E. J., Spencer, S. J., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 556-568. doi:10.1016/S0022-1031(02)00502-4
74. Strick, M., Holland, R. W., Van Baaren, R. B., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2009). Finding comfort in a joke: Consolatory effects of humor through cognitive distraction, Emotion, 9, 574-578. doi:10.1037/a0015951
75. Strick, M., Holland, R. W., Van Baaren, R. B., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2010a). Humor in the eye tracker: Attention capture and distraction from context cues. Journal of General Psychology, 137, 37-48. doi: 10.1080/00221300903293055
76. Strick, M., Holland, R. W., Van Baaren, R. B., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2010b). The puzzle of joking: Disentangling the cognitive and affective components of humorous distraction. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 43-51. doi:10.1002/ejsp.720
77. Strick, M., Holland, R. W., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2008). Seductive eyes: Attractiveness and direct gaze increase desire for associated objects, Cognition, 106, 1487-1496. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.05.008
78. Strick, M., Van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., & Van Knippenberg, A. (2009). Humor in advertisements enhances product liking by mere association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15, 35-45. doi:10.1037/a0014812
79. Sujan, M. (1985). Consumer knowledge: Effects on evaluation strategies mediating consumer judgments. Journal of Consumer Research, 12, 31-46. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489379 doi: 10.1086/209033
80. Suls, J. M. (1972). A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons: An information processing analysis. In J. H. Goldstein & P. E. McGee (Eds.), The psychology of humor: Theoretical perspectives and empirical issues (pp. 81-100). New York, NY: Academic Press.
81. Van Dillen, L. F., & Koole, S. L. (2007). Clearing the mind: A working memory model of distraction from negative mood. Emotion, 7, 715-723. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.4.715
82. Walther, E., & Nagengast, B. (2006). Evaluative conditioning and the awareness issue: Assessing contingency awareness with the four picture recognition test. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 454-459. doi:10.1037/0097-7403.32.4.454
83. Weinberger, M. G., & Gulas, C. S. (1992). The impact of humor in advertising: A review. Journal of Advertising, 21, 36-59. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4188856
84. Weinberger, M. G., Spotts, H. E., Campbell, L., & Parsons, A. L. (1995). The use of humor in different advertising media. Journal of Advertising Research, 35, 44-56.
85. Wheeler, S. C., Briñol, P., & Hermann, A. (2007). Resistance to persuasion as self-regulation: Ego-depletion and its consequences for attitude change processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 150156. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.01.001
86. Wilson, T. D., Lindsey, S., & Schooler, T. (2000). A model of dual attitudes. Psychological Review, 107, 101-126. doi:10.1037/0033295X.107.1.101
87. Woltman Elpers, J. L. C. M., Mukherjee, A., & Hoyer, W. D. (2004). Humor in television advertising: A moment-to-moment model. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 592-598. doi:10.1086/425094
88. Wood, W., & Quinn, J. M. (2003). Forewarned and forearmed? Two meta-analytic syntheses of forewarnings of influence appeals. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 119-138. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.119
89. Wright, P. (1986). Schemer schema: Consumers' intuitive theories about marketers' influence tactics. In R. J. Lutz (Ed.), Advances in consumer research (Vol. 13, pp. 1-3). doi:10.1086/209043
90. Zuwerink, J. R., & Devine, P. G. (1996). Attitude importance and resistance to persuasion: It's not just the thought that counts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 931-944. doi:10.1037/00223514.70.5.931