Enjoyment and Appreciation of Political Advertisements: How voters’ Issue Involvement and Congruence with the Sponsor Influence Their Responses and Decisions

Abstract

This study investigates how voters derive pleasure and meaning from political advertisements by conducting a 3 (sponsorship) × 2 (issue) factorial experiment. It examines the impact of the interaction of issue involvement and congruence between sponsorship and voters’ party affiliation on enjoyment and appreciation of the advertisement. Voters’ real-time emotions (determined by their facial expression) and their attention to the screen (captured via eye-tracking sensor) were measured. Voters’ responses to advertisement were examined in association with their subsequent candidate preference. Advertisements by congruent sponsors are enjoyed and appreciated more than those by incongruent sponsors. Negative and mixed emotions and time spent on the screen are more pronounced among those with higher issue involvement when viewing congruent advertisements. Only enjoyment, appreciation, and expression of positive emotions during advertisement exposure are positively associated with voting decision.

Keywords:

• political advertisement
• sponsorship
• enjoyment
• appreciation
• emotion
• eye-tracking

Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to Dr. Mina Tsay-Vogel’s assistance in this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Emotion and enjoyment/appreciation are separate variables and can be positively related. But their relationship, although confirmed in other contexts, is not focused in this study on political advertisement.