When Small Means Comfortable: Relations Between Product Attributes in Two-Sided Advertising

Abstract

The processes that mediate the effectiveness of 2-sided advertising were studied. We predicted that (a) 2-sided (vs. 1-sided) advertisements increase perceived source credibility and that (b) the logical relation between the negative and positive product attributes mentioned in the 2-sided ad (e.g., little space, implying a cozy atmosphere) facilitates favorable inferences about the positive attributes, especially when recipients have sufficient time to process the message content. Results supported these predictions. However, the effects of message type and processing time on attitudes were mediated by inferences about positive attributes but not by perceived source credibility. Implications of these findings for consumer judgment and decision making are discussed.