The effects of tolerance of negativity on consumers' responses to comparative attack advertising. Issue 7 (3rd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Muehling, Darrel D.; Vijayalakshmi, Akshaya; Laczniak, Russell N.
• Is Part Of: Journal of marketing communications. Volume 24:Issue 7(2018)
• Page Start: 703
• Page End: 719
• Publication Date: 2018-10-03
• Subjects: Tolerance -- negativity -- attack advertising -- consumer responses; Communication in marketing -- Periodicals; 658.8
• DOI: 10.1080/13527266.2016.1216462
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1352-7266

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on 'tolerance of negativity' (TON) as a means of understanding and predicting consumers' responses to negative marketing communications. The results of three empirical studies suggest that consumers who are low (as opposed to high) in TON (when measured and/or primed) find negatively framed comparative ads to be less fair, less useful, and have less favorable attitudes toward the ad and sponsor brand. Importantly, cognitive elaboration is shown to moderate these effects. Specifically, one's TON is found to be more impactful when individuals are engaged with an ad (i.e. when cognitive elaboration is greater) as opposed to when cognitive elaboration is lower. Interestingly, TON's moderating influence was not observed in any of the studies when attitudes toward the compared-to brand were the dependent variable.