The Role of Attachment Style in Shaping Consumer Preferences for Products Shown in Advertisements that Depict Consensus Claims

Abstract

Consensus claims are often depicted in advertisements. The present research adopts an attachment theory (Bowlby 1969) perspective to advance new insights into the effect of consensus claims in advertisements on consumers' purchase likelihood. Results of five studies demonstrate how the effectiveness of consensus claims in ads is circumscribed to specific individuals and that interpersonal attachment style is a key moderator. Specifically, among individuals with secure attachment styles, depicting consensus claims in ads enhances consumers' intentions to purchase the advertised product, but among individuals with anxious attachment styles, consensus claims are a less effective advertising tactic as they result in lower intentions to purchase the advertised product.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at www.tandfonline.com/ujoa.

Notes

1. Of note, a pretest (n = 65 undergraduate students; 58% female) was conducted on the ad manipulations in Studies 1 through 3, and participants in the consensus (versus nonconsensus) conditions consistently reported higher perceptions that the ad implied that the product/brand shown in the ad is favored (by many people) over other similar products/brands.

2. An additional model was conducted to examine whether individuals' feelings of fit regarding the advertised product mediate the interactive effect of attachment orientation and ad claim on purchase likelihood (F (5, 401) = 68.59, p < .05). Specifically, a model predicting purchase likelihood with attachment orientation, ad claim, the interaction of these variables, and perceived fit revealed a significant effect of perceived fit on purchase likelihood (β = 0.56, t = 9.46, p < .01). Importantly, a bootstrap analysis (n = 5,000 bootstraps) confirmed a significant mediating role of perceived fit (95% CI [.01, .51]) (Preacher and Hayes 2008).