Does Face Orientation Affect the Perception of a Model and The

ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802 Does Face Orientation Affect the Perception of a Model and the Evaluation of Advertised Product? Jaewoo Park, Musashi University, Japan Charles Spence, University of Oxford, UK Hiroaki Ishii, Seikei University, Japan Taku Togawa, Chiba University of Commerce, Japan [to cite]: Jaewoo Park, Charles Spence, Hiroaki Ishii, and Taku Togawa (2018) ,"Does Face Orientation Affect the Perception of a Model and the Evaluation of Advertised Product? ", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 11, eds. Maggie Geuens, Mario Pandelaere, and Michel Tuan Pham, Iris Vermeir, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 35-29. [url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/1700125/volumes/v11e/E-11 [copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Competitive Papers—Full Does Face Orientation Affect the Perception of a Model and the Evaluation of Advertised Product? Jaewoo Park, Musashi University, Japan Charles Spence, University of Oxford, UK Hiroaki Ishii, Seikei University, Japan Taku Togawa, Chiba University of Commerce, Japan ABSTRACT in the viewer’s left visual field, tend to be more easily recognized We report two experiments designed to demonstrate that a left- (Siéroff 2001; Yamamoto et al. 2005). For instance, Yamamoto et ward (vs. rightward) facing model’s face increases the perceived al. had their participants match either a left or right oblique view of trustworthiness of a model and subsequently the increased trustwor- familiar faces (e.g., a portrait of Gandhi) with names presented either thiness positively affect the evaluation of advertised products. The before or after the faces. In both tasks, participants responded more consumer’s level of emotional expressivity moderated the effect of rapidly to a left than to a right oblique view of the same face. These face orientation on perceived trustworthiness. studies therefore suggest that a left (vs. right) view of a face receives ABSTRACT more attention and has a superiority in terms of face processing. We report a study demonstrating that, in advertising contexts, Psycholinguistic studies demonstrate that the direction of read- changing the direction in which a model faces (leftward or right- ing/writing affects people’s preference for the object direction in ward from the viewer’s perspective) impacts perceived model trust- viewing and drawing (Eviatar 1997; Vaid 1995). For instance, Vaid worthiness and this subsequently carries-over to influence product reported that most left-to-right readers draw human faces facing evaluation. These results provide new insights into effective design leftward from the VP (89.1%), whereas right-to-left readers do not of visual advertising cues. exhibit any such tendency (45.2% leftward facing). These studies suggest that people who have a habit of scanning left-to-right per- INTRODUCTION ceive leftward (vs. rightward) facing model faces as more natural Painted and photographed portraits display more of the left and prototypical. side of the poser’s face than the right (Manovich, Ferrari, and Bruno Processing fluency, the subjective experience of ease with 2017; McManus and Humphrey 1973). For instance, McManus and which people process information (see Alter and Oppenheimer, Humphrey found that painted portraits dating from the Sixteenth to 2009, for a review), positively affects various judgments such as lik- the Twentieth Centuries show a significant leftward face bias (60% ing (Landwehr, Labroo, and Herrmann 2011; Reber, Winkielman, of 1474). Additionally, people tend to perceive the left side of a pos- and Schwarz 1998), believability (Begg, Anas, and Farinacci 1992; er’s face as more emotionally expressive and aesthetically pleasing Reber and Schwarz 1999), and subjective confidence (Novemsky, than the right (Blackburn and Schirillo 2012; Nicholls, Wolfgang, Dhar, Schwarz, and Simonson 2007). This is because high fluency Clode, and Lindell 2002). This left cheek bias is thought to be de- is associated with error-free information processing, and successful rived from the right hemisphere dominance for facial expressions stimulus recognition (Winkielman and Cacioppo, 2001; Winkielman, (Demaree, Everhart, Youngstrom, and Harrison 2005; Indersmitten Schwarz, Fazendeiro, and Reber, 2003). Additionally, various pro- and Gur 2003). Namely, because of the right-brain specialization for totypical (vs. non-prototypical) stimuli (e.g., average face, common emotion processing and the contralateral innervation of the facial geometric pattern) elicit more positive reactions because they are fa- muscles, emotions are expressed more intensely in the poser’s left miliar and are thus processed more easily (Rhodes, Halberstadt, and hemiface than the right. The left cheek bias exists in various facial Brajkovich 2001; Winkielman, Halberstadt, Fazendeiro, and Catty data in our daily lives and the left side of the face is perceived as 2006). more attractive than the right because of the left face’s superiority in The studies of face perception and psycholinguistics mentioned facial expression. above suggest that a leftward (vs. rightward) facing face receives Although previous research has confirmed the effect of the more attention, is processed more easily, and is perceived as being actual (left or right) side of the face on impression formation, it is more prototypical. When these findings are put together with the lit- still unclear whether the orientation of the image of the face affects erature on processing fluency, it can be assumed that a leftward (vs. people’s perception of a model when the face images actually happen rightward) facing model’s face from the VP will be processed more to be identical. Thus, in the present research, we examined wheth- fluently and thus will lead to a more positive impression. Addition- er and how face orientation (FO) affects people’s perception of a ally, studies of social cognition indicate that people tend to judge model. More importantly, we also test whether the orientation of a not only attractiveness but also trustworthiness from a person’s face model’s face can influence the evaluation of advertised products via (Stirrat and Perrett 2010; Todorov, Pakrashi, and Oosterhof 2009). perceived model impression. Therefore, we predicted that: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Hypothesis 1a: Perceived model attractiveness will be higher Studies using eye-tracking have confirmed the left attentional for a model facing leftward (vs. rightward) from bias, showing that viewers tend to make an initial fixation and look the VP. for longer at the left side of the poser’s face from the viewer’s perspective (VP) (Butler et al. 2005; Leonards and Scott-Samuel 2005). Hypothesis 1b: Perceived model trustworthiness will be higher Additionally, and more importantly, studies of face processing show for a model facing leftward (vs. rightward) from that faces presented in a left (vs. right) oblique view, which means the VP. that most of the features (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth) are placed European Association for Consumer Research 35 Volume 11, © 2018 36 / Does Face Orientation Affect the Perception of a Model and the Evaluation of Advertised Product? Attractiveness and trustworthiness are major dimensions of source credibility (Kelman and Hovland 1953) and these two endors- er characteristics positively affect people’s attitudes toward persua- sive messages and their evaluation of advertised products (DeSarbo and Harshman 1985; Ohanian 1990). Thus, we further predicted that: Hypothesis 2a: A leftward (vs. rightward) facing model’s face from the VP will lead to a higher evaluation of advertised products via increased model attractiveness. Hypothesis 2b: A leftward (vs. rightward) facing model’s face from the VP will lead to a higher evaluation of advertised products via increased model trustworthiness. There are individual differences in the left cheek preference for emotional expression and perception (Harris and Lindell 2011; Nicholls, Clode, Wood, and Wood 1999). Indeed, according to Nich- olls, Clode, Lindell, and Wood (2002), people with a higher level of emotional expressivity are more likely to adopt a left cheek pose. This implies that people with high (vs. low) emotional expressivity have repeated experiences of striking a left cheek pose and, thus may also perceive another person’s left (vs. right) oriented face as more natural and favorable. Therefore, it can be predicted that: Hypothesis 3a: The level of emotional expressivity will moder- ate the effect of FO on perceived model attractiveness. Figure 1 . Visual stimuli used in Experiments 1 and 2 Hypothesis 3b: The level of emotional expressivity will moder- Note. Japanese advertising copy on visual stimuli of Experiment 2 claims ate the effect of FO on perceived model trust- “Up to 98% plaque reduction”. worthiness. affected product evaluation via perceived model attractiveness and EXPERIMENT 1 trustworthiness, respectively. The results revealed that although perceived attractiveness positively affected the evaluation of the adver- Method tised spring water (b = .30, SE = .07, p < .001), FO (coded as 0 = One hundred Japanese participants (45 female; Mage = 40 rightward, 1 = leftward) did not significantly influence model at-

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