The impact of infectious disease cues on visual pattern-seeking

Abstract

Infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, cause disruptions to normal lives and thus trigger various adaptive reactions. We provide evidence that visual pattern-seeking, which brings perceived control in such disruptions, is one of the adaptive responses. Across five studies, consumers primed with the perceived threat of COVID-19 increase their evaluations of visually patterned advertising images and behavioural intentions to follow visually patterned messages designed to reduce the spread of the virus. The underlying process for this effect is that visual pattern-seeking helps consumers regain control that is threatened by the perceived threat of the pandemic. These findings shed light on the role of visual patterns as an effective source of communication in the COVID-19 era.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• perceived control
• advertising images
• pattern-seeking
• persuasion message

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes for contributors

Jaehoon Lee is an Assistant Professor and BMI Professorship of Marketing and Logistics at Florida International University, Miami, U.S.A. His research mainly focuses on how self-threatening situations affect consumer behavior and psychology. His research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business Research among others.

Jooyoung Park is an Assistant Professor at Peking University HSBC Business School, P. R. China. Her research interests include consumer motivation, goal management, and online behavior. Her research has been published in Psychological Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising among others.

Jacob C. Lee is an Associate Professor at Dongguk University, Korea. His research focuses on consumer behavior about and happiness from experiential purchases. His research has been published in Psychological Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, Marketing Letters, Psychology and Marketing among others.

Jihoon Jhang is an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, USA. His main research interests are in consumer behavior and decision-making. His research has been published in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychology and Marketing among others.

Jungkeun Kim is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His main research interests are in consumer decision-making and behaviors. His research has been published in Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Retailing, among others.

Notes

1 This effect could be interpreted as either (i) freedom-seeking under the pandemic threat (e.g., the unavailability of restaurants during lockdown increases the motivation to visit) or (ii) simple response bias.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.