Responses to information incongruency in advertising: The role of expectancy, relevancy, and humor

Abstract

Two studies examining the effects of expectancy, relevancy, and humor on attitude formation are presented. Following previous research, expectancy refers to the degree to which an item or a piece of information falls into some predetermined pattern or structure evoked by an ad. Relevancy refers to the degree to which an item or a piece of information contributes to the identification of the primary message communicated by the ad. Across two studies that examined immediate response, we found that information expectancy and relevancy interact to produce different levels of attitude favorability. Although ads with unexpected-relevant information elicited more favorable attitudes than did ads with expected-relevant information, ads with unexpected-irrelevant information yielded less favorable attitudes that did ads with expected-relevant information. Furthermore, humor and relevancy interact where a humorous execution was found to have a favorable effect in ads with unexpected-irrelevant information but not in ads with unexpected-relevant information. In addition, the second study further examined delayed responses in which the findings revealed a different pattern. Particularly noteworthy is a sleeper effect for ads with unexpected-irrelevant information where attitudes for both the ad and the brand improved over time. We conclude with implications and suggestions for future research.