The influence of message framing, felt involvement and gender upon persuasion

• Main Authors: Low, Li San, Tan, Hui Whee, Yet, Kum Meng
• Other Authors: Roger Marshall
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Marketing::Consumer behavior
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63957
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Investigation into the effect of message framing upon persuasion is a relatively new but emerging stream of research within the framework of both consumer behaviour and psychology. Past researches in this area have produced inconclusive and conflicting results with both the positive and negative frames heralded as more persuasive than their oppositely-valenced counterparts. Maheswaran & Meyers-Levy (1990) empirically tested a theoretical explanation for these mixed findings where issue involvement is seen as a mediating factor of framing effects. Brett Martin (1993) extended the research to a New Zealand sample to test the cross-cultural applicability of the findings of Maheswaran & Meyers-Levy. The present study replicates the research by Brett Martin in an Asian context to further investigate the generalisability of the original findings of Maheswaran & Meyers Levy. In accordance with Brett Martin, the present study utilised felt involvement as the conceptualised involvement construct and gender effects were also tested. Results of the study failed to provide support for the earlier findings. In fact, irrespective of the valence of the message frame, persuasion is consistently higher under high involvement condition as compared to low involvement condition. As expected, no gender effects were found to be present. The theoretical implication of this study is that the aforementioned theoretical framework cannot be generalised across culture. Indeed, the results suggested that cross-cultural difference may itself be a mediating factor of framing effects upon persuasion. The findings of the present study have a number of managerial implications for promotional strategy in the Singapore context. Organisations should raise the response involvement (situational involvement) of target consumers for their commercial product through sales promotions such as lucky draws, discount coupons and free gifts since persuasion is greater under high involvement. Besides, promoters should not over-emphasize the importance of of different message frames upon persuasion, especially if the target audience are Chinese consumers who tend to be more skeptical.