The role of affective reactions in enhancing the recall of public service announcements (PSAs): Implications for the design and placement of PSAs
Abstract
Mass media investigations on public service announcements (PSAs) have failed to fully examine how affective reactions generated by television programs influence individuals' learning of PSA-based content. The scope of this limitation becomes apparent when one examines marketing researchers use of this perspective to investigate how affect generated by programs influences individuals' learning of the content contained in commercial advertisements. This study used the predictions made by Bower's associative network theory of affect to examine the following question: Do emotional reactions generated by televised programs influence individuals' encoding and learning of PSA based content? Specifically, this research sought to investigate whether congruency between the emotional reactions generated by televised programs interacted with the hedonic valence of PSAs to increase individuals' learning of these messages. To answer this question two descriptive and two experimental studies were conducted. The success of the mood manipulations and recall of PSAs were assessed through the use of self-report measures. The results of the main experimental study failed to confirm the theoretical hypotheses that were tested. However, the research did demonstrate that the negative PSAs were better recalled than the positive PSAs across the positive, negative, and neutral program conditions. The results also indicated that, overall, female respondents recalled more information than the male respondents. Limitations of this research and implications for future research are also discussed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sparks, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Mass media|Social psychology
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