Source Customization Reduces Psychological Reactance to a Persuasive Message via User Control and Identity Perceptions

ABSTRACT

Previous research has indicated that giving users the opportunity to customize a persuasive source led to increased liking for the product that the source was selling. In this study, users were either assigned a two-dimensional avatar representing a persuasive source, allowed to select an avatar, or were asked to create an avatar to represent a source's appearance. Results indicate that increasing the number of customization options increases perceptions of identity with the source and control over the source, which reduces psychological reactance to the persuasive message and ultimately increases product liking. These findings suggest that persuasive message creators using interactive media would do well to give users the opportunity to customize a source object when presenting them with a persuasive message.

KEYWORDS:

• Customization
• interactive media
• advertising
• persuasive messaging

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful and invaluable assistance during the review process.