UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising An Application of Evolutionary Psychology for an Improved Understanding of Advertising Effectiveness Master of Science Thesis Merijn de Ruijter van Steveninck December 2010 University of Groningen, 2010 | MSc Thesis: “Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising” 2 Author: Ruijter van Steveninck, M. de State University Groningen Faculty of Business & Economics Master of Science Business Administration, Marketing Management Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising An Application of Evolutionary Psychology for an Improved Understanding of Advertising Effectiveness Master of Science Thesis Merijn de Ruijter van Steveninck December 2010 Supervisors: Karel-Jan Alsem ([email protected]) Debra Trampe ([email protected]) Address Author: Acacialaan 24b 3941JR Doorn +31 616402813 [email protected] Student number: s1752553 Source reference cover: www.anotherpanacea.com University of Groningen, 2010 | MSc Thesis: “Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising” 3 Author: Ruijter van Steveninck, M. de University of Groningen, 2010 | MSc Thesis: “Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising” 4 Author: Ruijter van Steveninck, M. de Management Summary Intro There are different opinions of the rationale behind advertising. Advertising could be defined as either a mirror of human nature or as socialization force, which shapes human behaviour (i.e. nature versus nurture). The implications for determining advertising effectiveness are contradicting in both views. Evolutionary psychology and the social sciences are the two opposing research streams. In case of evolutionary psychology, unconscious needs or drives are the basis. Evolutionary psychologists state that the mind is a set of information-processing machines that were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors (Tooby and Cosmides, 1997). On the other hand, social scientists argue that the contents of human minds are primarily free social constructions, and are autonomous and disconnected from any evolutionary or psychological foundation (Tooby and Cosmides, 1997). In this thesis the contradicting views are analyzed in order to get a better understanding of advertising effectiveness. In case of evolutionary psychology, advertising effectiveness will be enhanced if the evolved human nature is taken into account in the development of advertisements. Furthermore, the social sciences state that it is unethical and scientifically unsound to apply an evolutionary psychology perspective. In this thesis it is argued that the evolutionary psychology viewpoint, in contradiction to the social sciences, provides a unifying framework in determining consumer behaviour. Therefore, advertising practitioners could improve advertising effectiveness while applying evolutionary psychology. Furthermore, this thesis arguments why it is not unethical and in fact appropriate to take advantage of the lessons which could be learned from evolutionary psychology. Literature Study The evolutionary minded studies suggest that consumption-relevant processes such as product search, product evaluation, and decision-making are likely to differ qualitatively depending on which adaptive mental system – that is – which evolutionary domain – is being engaged (Griskevicius et al., 2009). Griskevicius et al. (2007, 2009) were the first in showing empirically the value evolutionary psychology could have for marketing. They presented the joint interaction of active motives (i.e. romantic versus neutral), costly signals (i.e. conspicuous consumption versus blatant benevolence) and gender. These studies are from an evolutionary psychology perspective relevant because of the relation between University of Groningen, 2010 | MSc Thesis: “Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising” 5 Author: Ruijter van Steveninck, M. de different motives and the expected behaviour of humans. The aim of this thesis is to extend these models to an advertising context, thus to improve the effectiveness of advertising. Conceptual Model and Research Design The research question constructed for this thesis is as follows: what is the impact of the joint interplay of costly signals, active motives and gender on advertising effectiveness? Costly signals are operated by advertisements based on conspicuous consumption or blatant benevolence appeals. They were created for four products (Hummer, Giro 555, a purebred dog and an MBA). Advertising effectiveness was assessed by measures of brand loyalty (attitude and behaviour). Furthermore, this study accounted for previous build product associations which could influence the results. It was checked whether people’s status (i.e. equivalent of conspicuous consumption) or pro-social (i.e. equivalent of blatant benevolence) associations influenced the results. See table 1 at the end of the summary for an outline of the main study. In accordance to predictions by evolutionary psychologists, and specifically the studies of Griskevicius et al. (2007, 2009), the hypotheses generated in this study are depicted below. Hypothesis 1: Costly Signalling There is a three way interaction between costly signalling appeals (i.e. conspicuous consumption and blatant benevolence), active motives (i.e. romantic motives and neutral motives) and gender for the measures of advertising effectiveness (i.e. attitude and behaviour). Specifically, romantic motives are positively related to the measures of advertising effectiveness for conspicuous consumption appeals if one is man. Controversially, romantic motives are positively related to the measures of advertising effectiveness for blatant benevolence appeals if one is woman. Furthermore, neutral motives are not related to the measures of advertising effectiveness. Hypothesis 2: Status and Pro-Social Associated Products There is a three way interaction between product associations (i.e. status and pro-social), active motives (i.e. romantic motives and neutral motives) and gender for the measures of advertising effectiveness (i.e. attitude and behaviour). Specifically, romantic motives are positively related to the measures of advertising effectiveness for status associated products if one is man. Controversially, romantic motives are positively related to the measures of advertising effectiveness for pro-social related products if one is woman. Furthermore, neutral motives are not related to the measures of advertising effectiveness. University of Groningen, 2010 | MSc Thesis: “Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising” 6 Author: Ruijter van Steveninck, M. de Hypothesis 3: Status and Pro-Social Associated Products, Strengthened by Costly Signalling Appeals There is a three way interaction between product associations strengthened by costly signalling appeals (i.e. status/conspicuous consumption and pro-social/blatant benevolence), active motives (i.e. romantic motives and neutral motives) and gender for the measures of advertising effectiveness (i.e. attitude and behaviour). Specifically, romantic motives are positively related to the measures of advertising effectiveness for status associated products strengthened by conspicuous consumption appeals if one is man. Controversially, romantic motives are positively related to the measures of advertising effectiveness for pro-social related products strengthened by blatant benevolence appeals if one is woman. Furthermore, neutral motives are not related to the measures of advertising effectiveness. The design of the experiment was a two (participant sex) by two (active motive: mating versus neutral) by two (costly signalling appeals: conspicuous consumption versus blatant benevolence) repeated measures design. Sex and mental state were between-participants factors, whereas costly signalling appeals were within-participants factors. Results and Discussion For the behaviour component of advertising effectiveness the predicted three way interaction was found in case of hypothesis I. Although, it has to be noticed that the interaction effect was significant at a 90 percent confidence level, therefore the results have to be interpreted with some caution. Specifically, the results showed that men with romantic motives scored higher on the behaviour measure when persuaded with conspicuous consumption appeals than blatant benevolence appeals. For women, the opposite was true. Furthermore, participants in the neutral active motive showed a similar behavioural pattern. For the attitude component of advertising effectiveness, no three way interaction effect was found. However, also for attitude a main interaction was found between costly signalling appeals and sex. In specific, men scored in both active motives higher for attitude when persuaded by conspicuous consumption appeals. For women there was no significant interaction. Hypotheses II and III were not supported, therefore previous build product associations did not have main effects. The difference found between the attitude and behaviour measures is striking. In this study, the interaction was only significant for the behaviour measure. The origin of this variation is not clear and University of Groningen, 2010 | MSc Thesis: “Costly Signalling as Persuasion Heuristic in Advertising” 7 Author: Ruijter van Steveninck, M. de the literature is not clear about it. Although Curlo (1992) suggest that people may prefer and choose brands even though they dislike their advertisements, i.e.,