The moderating role of cultural orientation in explaining temporal orientation of self-referencing |
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Authors: | Seungae Lee Jun Heo |
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Affiliation: | 1. Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USAlee@utexas.edu;3. Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA |
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Abstract: | A psychological process called self-referencing justifies the use of ‘you’ statements in advertisements; the more an individual relates an ad to him/herself, the greater the likelihood of recall and favorable evaluation. Self-referencing can be differentiated based on the temporal dimension of the self being activated while processing advertisements: when people remember themselves in the past they engage in retrospective self-referencing whereas they engage in anticipatory self-referencing when imagining themselves in the future. The current study examined the moderating role of consumers’ cultural background (i.e. long-term vs. short-term orientation) on the effects of temporal orientation of self-referencing. A corollary of this premise is that the match between cultural time orientation and the type of self-referencing activated by an ad will increase the extent of viewers’ self-referencing as well as advertising effectiveness. Further, this study confirmed a mediating role of self-referencing in explaining the match effects. The findings inform the extant literature on self-referencing and also provide managerial implications for international advertising practitioners. |
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Keywords: | Temporal orientation of self-referencing long-term orientation cultural differences message framing |
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