Priming Effects on Product Judgments: A Hemispheric Interpretation

Abstract

Research suggests that priming different hemisphere processing styles with particular types of tasks or stimuli can affect product judgment. Visual spatial or pictorial information seems to activate the undifferentiated, holistic processing style associated with the right hemisphere, while linguistic or verbal information seems to activate the detail sensitive, differentiated processing style associated with the left hemisphere. This proposition and the extent to which it holds for males and females are investigated. Implications of how the findings relate to program context effects and consumer behavior are discussed.