Original Article

The visual priming effect of credit card

advertising disclosure
Received (in revised form): 30th July 2011

Alex Wang
is an associate professor of Communication Sciences. His research and consulting activities focus on integrated marketing communications,
corporate social responsibility and financial communication. His works have been published in Journal of Advertising Research, Corporate
Reputation Review, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Marketing Communications, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Journal of
Financial Services Marketing, International Journal of Mobile Marketing and others. He has also received grants and research papers awards.

ABSTRACT This study examines how college students perceive the disclosure in a credit card
issuer’s advertisement through visual priming of the disclosure. The results reveal that visual
priming affects college students’ attention toward the disclosure. Moreover, college students perceive
higher levels of trust toward the advertisement when the disclosure is visually displayed. Visual
priming also enhances college students’ attitudes toward the advertisement and the credit card
issuer. This is evident, as the impact of college students’ perceived trust toward the advertisement
on their attitudes toward the credit card issuer is mediated by their attitudes toward the advertise-
ment. This study’s results promote the effectiveness of credit card advertising through two main
approaches: adopting visual communication of disclosure; implementing more responsible credit
card advertising practices.
International Journal of Disclosure and Governance (2012) 9, 348–363. doi:10.1057/jdg.2011.25;
published online 1 December 2011; Corrected online 2 May 2012

Keywords: disclosure; credit card advertising; corporate social responsibility; college students; brand
attitude; perceived trust

INTRODUCTION usually includes important information that helps

There has been concern that credit card issuers
are taking unfair advantage of vulnerable popu-
lations such as college students because of inher-
ently one-sided credit card advertising messages
(Millar and Moran, 1990; Compton and Pfau,
2004). Given the importance of transparency in
today’s financial environment, the main value
of credit card advertising disclosure is that it
Correspondence: Alex Wang
Department of Communication Sciences,
University of Connecticut – Stamford,
One University Place, Stamford,
Connecticut 06901, USA
consumers understand the way credit card issuers
charge their customers (Wang, 2009). Research
has suggested that consumers increasingly expect
credit card issuers to disclose important informa-
tion in a responsible manner (Mohr et al, 2001;
Richardson and Welker, 2001). According to
Fair Credit and Charge Card Disclosure Act
(FTC, n.d.), amending the Truth in Lending
Act, credit card issuers are required to provide
certain disclosures in direct mail, telephone and
other applications and solicitations to open-
end credit and charge accounts and under other
circumstances. Simply put, this Act requires
credit card issuers to disclose specifics of
their offer in an advertisement, in a reasonably

© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance Vol. 9, 4, 348–363
www.palgrave-journals.com/jdg/

consistent manner. Specifically, credit card issuers
are required to provide disclosures regarding
annual percentage rate for purchases, variable
rate information, grace period for purchases,
annual fee, method of computing the balance
for purchases and minimum finance charge.
Virtually all credit card issuers that provide
any disclosures in their advertisements include
qualitative or quantitative discussions of their
services and fees. However, the effectiveness
of credit card advertising disclosure depends
significantly on the basis of how it is dis-
played in a credit card issuer’s advertisement
(Polonsky and Hyman, 2007). In theory, credit
card issuers should clearly identify important
disclosures in their advertisements in order
to give consumers a better understanding of
their services and fees (Wagenhofer, 1990).
However, credit card issuers could intentionally
opt to display disclosures away from persuasive
messages, with the hope of not attracting unde-
sirable responses from consumers (Myers and
Majluf, 1984; Torres et al, 2007; Wang, 2009).
This study argues that credit card issuers may
benefit from improving college students’ brand
attitudes by visually displaying disclosures in
their advertisements. On the basis of assump-
tions derived from Corporate Social Respon-
sibility (CSR) practices and the Social Contract
Theory (SCT), positive attitudes toward credit
card issuers’ advertisements and credit card
issuers may be enhanced through college stu-
dents’ perceived trust toward credit card issuers’
advertisements when responsible practices in
displaying disclosures in credit card advertise-
ments are perceived by college students (David
et al, 2005; Polonsky and Hyman, 2007; Torres
et al, 2007; Wang, 2009).
Investigations of how college students
perceive disclosures in credit card advertise-
ments require data analysis that can account
for communication contexts and individual
differences. This study suggests an important
communication context, visual priming, that
may influence how college students form
attitudes toward credit card issuers’ advertise-
ments and credit card issuers. Specifically, this
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
The visual priming effect of credit card advertising disclosure
study uses an experiment to manipulate visual
communications to attract college students’
attention toward a credit card issuer’s disclo-
sure in an advertisement for the purpose of
influencing college students’ attitudes toward
the advertisement and the credit card issuer.
When college students perceive responsible
practices of displaying disclosure in a credit
card issuer’s advertisement, college students
may transfer their positive attitudes toward the
credit card issuer’s advertisement to the credit
card issuer through higher levels of perceived
trust toward the credit card issuer’s advertise-
ment. The results from this study’s investi-
gations may encourage credit card issuers to
practice their advertising disclosures respon-
sibly. Moreover, the results of this study may
help: (a) investigate the extent to which credit
card issuers may benefit from reinforcing
their advertising disclosures; and (b) consider
the practicality of developing recommenda-
tions for enhanced credit card advertising dis-
closures as appropriate.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Visual priming
Visual priming refers to changes in a person’s
ability to identify an object as a result of a
specific prior encounter with the visual dis-
plays associated with the object (Stein, 1998;
Mandel and Johnson, 2002). In other words,
visual priming enhances an individual’s aware-
ness of an object by making the object visually
noticeable. One principle that can explain the
visual priming effect on an individual’s per-
ceptions of credit card advertising disclosure is
the principle of transfer-appropriate processing
(Mulligan and Dew, 2009). The general prin-
ciple of transfer-appropriate processing states
that processing and memory performance are
directed by the association between the cog-
nitive operations required at processing and
at retrieval (Morris et al, 1977). Roediger
and McDermott (1993) suggest that the cogni-
tive operations may be dependent on percep-
tual (data-driven) process. This view suggests
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363 349
 Wang
that an individual’s perceptions of credit card
advertising disclosure may be dependent on
the analysis of visual communications.
Masson and MacLeod (1997, 2002) examined
the effects of semantic priming on information
processing and found that some generation tasks,
such as semantic associates, produced priming
equivalent to reading on the perceptual identi-
fication task. Consequently, they concluded that
most semantic generation tasks produced robust
priming on perceptual identification. Regardless
of the mode of study response, Mulligan and
Dew (2009) also found that semantic priming
produced full priming effect on perceptual
identification. These results suggest that covert
visualization through semantic context is con-
sistent with data-driven processes (Barnhurst
et al, 2004; Mulligan and Dew, 2009).
Research has examined the uses of signs,
symbols and shape representations that prime
awareness of information (Biederman and
Cooper, 1991; Biederman and Gerhardstein,
1995). Bettman et al (1986) suggest that use of
symbols may be more effective than words in
alerting consumers to important information
because they are more likely to attract atten-
tion, are easier to process and stimulate greater
cognitive elaboration. Strack and Mussweiler
(1997) suggest that priming of a feature accounts
for the anchoring effects that influence relevant
judgments. Young and Wogalter (1990) found
support for warning icon effectiveness in user
manuals. Schmitt (1994) found that partici-
pants who were primed visually to think about
personal values were more likely to associate
a picture with corresponding values, whereas
participants who were primed on social values
were more likely to refer to social values in
their associations.
Visual priming also requires lexical access
rather than the mere processing of constituent
letters, which is why accounts of feature priming
often refer to lexical-orthographic representa-
tions (McKoon and Ratcliff, 1995; Bowers
et al, 2002). Research suggests that the advantage
of this priming paradigm is that the combined
effects of semantic and linguistic processing
350 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
and visual representation contribute to visual
latency (Stankiewicz et al, 1998; Stankiewicz,
2002). For example, Fay et al (2005) found that
attending to individual letters in studying words
produced little perceptual priming, whereas
whole-word processing produced high levels
of priming in perceptual identification.
Mulligan (2004) and Mulligan et al (2006)
examined the effects of visual priming on
explicit memory for colors and fonts of the
target items. In their experiments, study stimuli
were presented in a read or generate condi-
tion. An interaction effect was evident as their
results revealed that for visual priming of
the target items, reading condition exhibited
stronger memory than did generation condi-
tion. Mulligan (2004) concluded that generation
condition emphasized conceptual processing
of the target and minimized perceptual
encoding, whereas reading produced the
opposite. Consequently, perceptual (visual)
attributes of the target were better encoded
in the read condition.
CSR practices and SCT
CSR is defined here as a citizenship function
with social obligations between a corporation
and its customers (Maignan and Ferrell, 2001;
David et al, 2005). Specifically in financial
settings, credit card issuers need to achieve
appropriate profits while doing what college
students perceive is responsible (Miles and
Covin, 2000; Miles and Manilla, 2004). The
SCT also suggests that corporations exist not
only for themselves but also for the welfare of
consumers (Donaldson, 1982). The concept of
the social contract suggests a moral framework
that encompasses the real and perceived rela-
tionships between corporations and consumers.
Exploring the research findings for credit card
advertising disclosures, this study uses CSR
practices and SCT to support the positive
effects of college students’ perceived trust
toward a credit card issuer’s advertisement on
college students’ attitudes toward the advertise-
ment and the credit card issuer through visual
priming of the disclosure.
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363

Research has found strong links between visual
priming and information processing (Fahmy
et al, 2006). Severin and Tankard (2001), for
example, found that the priming process altered
the way individuals perceived information.
Homer and Kahle (1986) examined the effects
of visual priming cues that created expectation
on the effectiveness of print advertisements and
found that visual priming encouraged product
recall. Stewart and Martin (1994) found that
consumer compliance increased in proportion
to the effectiveness of visual communications
used in warning labels. Fazio et al (1983) found
that individuals exposed to visual cues were
found to be primed to retain that information
in forming opinions. Given that a visual cue is
typically used as a prime, processing the visual
feature of the cue may also drive priming on the
associated context (Mulligan and Dew, 2009).
Such a notion is consistent with the role that
shape representation typically plays in percep-
tual priming (Biederman and Cooper, 1991).
Visual priming may make college students
notice disclosures in credit card issuers’ adver-
tisements. Because of an increased awareness of
disclosures in credit card issuers’ advertisements,
visual priming may influence college students’
perceptions of credit card issuers’ advertising
disclosures (Iyengar and Kinder, 1987; Iyengar
and Simon, 1993). This type of visual priming
operates in a manner similar to visual readiness,
which produces a readiness to process credit
card issuers’ advertising disclosures (Mandel and
Johnson, 2002; Mulligan, 2004). The way credit
card issuers practice their advertising disclosures
may reflect their CSR practices, perceived and
evaluated by college students (Donaldson and
Dunfee, 2002; Wang, 2009). When college stu-
dents are reviewing a credit card issuer’s adver-
tising disclosure, they may perceive the way the
credit card issuer practices advertising disclosure
as a reflection of the credit card issuer’s CSR
practices (Torres et al, 2007).
Research has suggested that the social con-
tract between corporations and customers may
be expanded in financial context to incorpo-
rate expectations that a credit card issuer should
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
The visual priming effect of credit card advertising disclosure
provide clear advertising disclosure (Wang,
2009). College students who have positive
attitudes toward a credit card issuer’s adver-
tising disclosure may show attitudinal shifts in
the direction of the advocacy and transfer their
positive attitudes into favorable attitudes toward
the credit card issuer’s responsible advertising
practice. As a result, college students who have
favorable attitudes toward a credit card issuer’s
responsible practice in advertising disclosure
may perceive higher levels of trust toward the
credit card issuer’s advertisement.
Hypotheses
Research has considered perceived trust as a
perceived quality (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986).
In particular, Kramer (1999) has defined trust-
worthiness as a state of perceived vulnerability
derived from a person’s uncertainty regarding
the motives, intentions and prospective actions
of others on whom they depend. The absence
of a stake from a particular source is called inter-
dependence, which describes a necessary condi-
tion for trustworthiness (Doney and Cannon,
1997). Therefore, college students may assess
credit card issuers’ advertising disclosures to
arrive at overall assessments in evaluating per-
ceived trust toward credit card issuers’ adver-
tisements (Donaldson and Dunfee, 2002; Wang,
2009). The CSR and SCT both support this
proposition. Thus, this study tests the following
hypothesis.
Hypothesis 1: Visual priming of disclosure
in a credit card issuer’s advertisement will
enhance college students’ perceived trust
toward the advertisement.
One objective function consistent with CSR
practices and the SCT in credit card adver-
tising disclosure is to maximize the positive
consequences of disclosure processing among
college students (Stanwick and Stanwick, 1998).
This function means that identifying responsible
advertising disclosure requires that college stu-
dents’ interests be considered and integrated
into a credit card issuer’s advertising disclosure
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 Wang
(Polonsky and Hyman, 2007). Consumers’
attitudes toward credit card issuers’ advertise-
ments may be positively affected when socially
responsible efforts are made by credit card
issuers’ advertisements (Sen and Bhattacharya,
2001; Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004). Thus, this
study tests the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2: Visual priming of disclosure
in a credit card issuer’s advertisement will
enhance college students’ attitudes toward
the advertisement.
Consumers may put a relatively high value
and trust on a credit card issuer that discloses
important information to them responsibly.
Torres et al (2007) probed the relevance of this
assumption by reviewing practices of warning
labels in print advertisements with a content
analysis of consumer magazines. They exam-
ined the effectiveness of warning label place-
ment strategies. Validating the assumptions
derived from the SCT, they found positive
attitude toward a brand when a warning label
was overtly rather than discreetly placed in the
brand’s advertisement. Thus, this study tests the
following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 3: Visual priming of disclosure
in a credit card issuer’s advertisement will
enhance college students’ attitudes toward
the credit card issuer.
Research argues that corporations thrive
when adhering to obligations imposed by social
contracts (Donaldson, 1982; Smith, 2005). The
SCT suggests that when a credit card issuer
responsibly discloses important information in
an advertisement, college students’ enhanced
perceived trust toward the credit card issuer’s
advertisement may enhance their attitudes
toward the advertisement and the credit card
issuer. Research has found that consumers have
a tendency to form positive attitudes toward
socially responsible corporations that follow the
appropriate role in society (Mohr et al, 2001;
Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). On the other
352 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
hand, corporations’ business practices, perceived
to be irresponsible, can create negative attitudes
that damage their corporate images (Brown and
Dacin, 1997; Balmer, 2001; Wang, 2007). As
a result, credit card issuers perceived as trust-
worthy may generate more positive responses
than credit card issuers perceived as failing their
social responsibility in their advertising disclo-
sures. On the basis of the aforementioned litera-
ture, the study tests the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 4: College students’ perceived
trust toward a credit card issuer’s adver-
tisement will positively enhance their
attitudes toward the credit card issuer’s
advertisement.
Hypothesis 5: College students’ perceived
trust toward a credit card issuer’s adver-
tisement will positively enhance their
attitudes toward the credit card issuer.
Consumer response across the hierarchy-of-
effects among perceived trust toward a credit
card issuer’s advertisement, attitude toward the
advertisement and attitude toward the credit
card issuer may differentially change (Torres
et al, 2007). Wang (2009) examined the rela-
tionship between consumers’ attitudes toward
disclosures in credit card issuers’ print advertise-
ments, attitudes toward credit card issuers’ CSR
practices, and attitudes toward credit card issuers
in general. His results revealed that participants’
positive attitudes toward credit card issuers’
advertising disclosures enhanced their attitudes
toward credit card issuers. More importantly,
attitudes toward credit card issuers’ CSR prac-
tices mediated attitudes toward credit card
issuers’ advertising disclosures on enhancing
attitudes toward credit card issuers. Therefore,
the aforementioned discussion leads to the
following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 6: The impact of college stu-
dents’ perceived trust toward a credit card
issuer’s advertisement on their attitudes
toward the credit card issuer is mediated
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363

by college students’ attitudes toward the
advertisement.
METHOD
Procedures
An online study was conducted at a Northeastern
University. The study population included
college students only. The population included
male and female students with various ethnic
backgrounds and age ranges. This study used
a convenience sample. The researcher posted
an approved information sheet outside of the
psychology lab to inform potential participants
of this research study. The research opportunity
was also announced in classes. Students could
also read the information sheet posted on the
study website. Once they read the information
sheet and agreed to participate in this study,
they clicked the start link to begin the study.
To ensure the independence of observation
assumption, this study advised students not to
discuss about this study with each other before
or after participating in this study. Thus, the
study’s observations were assumed to be inde-
pendent, as the sampling of one observation
did not affect the choice of other observations.
In addition, the Durbin–Watson test was used
to evaluate the independence of observation
assumption. The value of the D–W coefficient
was 1.902, indicating a proper value (between
1.5 and 2.5) for the independence of observa-
tion (Stevens, 1996).
A one-way (visual priming versus no visual
priming) quasi-experimental design was used for
the online study. Two conditions exposed two
advertisements with or without visual priming
of the same disclosure to participants. At the
beginning of this study, participants were asked
to select Number 1 or Number 2, which repre-
sented two conditions. There were 184 partici-
pants selecting the visual priming condition and
112 participants selecting the condition without
visual priming. Students were asked to review an
advertisement from a fictitious credit card issuer.
After reviewing the advertisement, participants
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
The visual priming effect of credit card advertising disclosure
filled out an online survey. The online survey
was self-administered with participants recording
an identifier code in place of their names to
ensure confidentiality and promote confidence
in providing sensitive information accurately.
No observations from 296 students had to be
dropped because of missing information. Once
students completed the study, they received a
code at the end of the study to earn one extra
credit point for their classes.
Stimuli
In the visual priming condition, participants
were exposed to a yellow warning sign directly
beside the disclosure in the advertisement. The
use of yellow warning sign was standardized and
deemed most effective in perceptual identifica-
tion at Oak Ridge National Lab in early 1948
(Stephen and Barrett, 1979). This design was
consistent with previous research, suggesting
that uses of signs, symbols and shape represen-
tations could be effective in attracting attention
and stimulating greater cognitive elaboration
(Bettman et al, 1986; Biederman and Cooper,
1991; Biederman and Gerhardstein, 1995). In
the condition without visual priming, partici-
pants were not exposed to the disclosure with
any special visual primes.
The placements of the visual prime and the
disclosure in the study’s advertisement were
designed based on the matching activation
hypothesis ( Janiszewski, 1988, 1990). The
matching activation hypothesis predicts that
the greater activation of the right hemisphere
during the processing of attended visual informa-
tion could enhance the processing of additional
material represented within the left hemisphere,
provided the material in the opposing hemi-
sphere can be processed by that hemisphere
( Janiszewski, 1988, 1990). Therefore, placing
the disclosure to the right of an attended visual
prime should send it to the less activated left
hemisphere, where it would receive a greater
degree of subconscious processing than if sent
to the right hemisphere. As the visual prime
used in this study would also require a lexical
access of processing, placing the visual prime
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363 353
 Wang
to the left of the disclosure could send it to
the less activated right hemisphere, where it
would receive a greater degree of subconscious
processing than if sent to the left hemisphere.
Theoretically, the placements of the visual
prime and the disclosure would increase the
amount of subconscious processing for the
visual prime and the disclosure in either case.
Measures
This study measured three dependent vari-
ables. Perceived trust toward the advertise-
ment was measured by asking the participants
how trustworthy the advertisement was, using
a 7-point scale, where ‘not trustworthy at all’
was coded as 1 and ‘very trustworthy’ was
coded as 7. Attitude toward the advertise-
ment was measured by asking the participants
to complete the sentence, ‘I would describe
the advertisement as boring/interesting, bad/
good, do not like it/like it and unappealing/
appealing’, using four 7-point scales (Hallahan,
1999; Baker and Lutz, 2000; Wang, 2009).
Attitude toward the credit card issuer was
measured by asking the participants to com-
plete the sentence, ‘I would describe the
credit card issuer as unpleasant/pleasant, do
not like it/like it and unfavorable/favorable’,
using three 7-point scales (Hallahan, 1999;
Baker and Lutz, 2000; Wang, 2009). The
Cronbach’s  values for attitude toward the
advertisement and attitude toward the credit
card issuer were 0.94 and 0.94, respectively.
Research has suggested that socioeconomic
characteristics often influence financial behav-
iors (Filbeck et al, 2005; Masud et al, 2008).
Thus, this study first measured participants’
Table 1: Visual priming and noticing the disclosure
Did you notice the disclosure
Visual priming Visual priming
No visual priming
Total
354 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
age (M = 20.18; SD = 2.70), education and
allowable income. While 50 per cent of the
participants had less than US$55 000 allow-
able income a year, 100 per cent of them had
a high school degree. Research has shown
gender differences in how individuals perceive
visuals. Boyatzis and Eades (1999) and Salkind
and Salkind (1997) found gender differences in
both production and preference for different
works of art. Fournier and Wineburg (1997)
also demonstrated gender differences in the
perception of figures. Thus, it is important to
measure gender as a covariate. There were 115
(39 per cent) male and 181 (61 per cent) female
participants in this study.
RESULTS
Two manipulation checks were used to examine
the effectiveness of visual priming manipula-
tions. The first manipulation check was meas-
ured by asking the participants whether they
noticed the disclosure in the advertisement,
using a close-ended question. A 2 test was
performed to examine whether the participants
noticed the disclosure in the visual priming con-
dition versus condition without visual priming
(Table 1). The results revealed that 225 (76 per
cent) out of 296 participants noticed the dis-
closure. The participants in the visual priming
condition (75 per cent) were more likely to
notice the disclosure than the participants in
the condition without visual -priming (56 per
cent), 2 (1) = 120.651, P < 0.001. The second
manipulation check was measured by asking
the participants how the disclosure’s visual
display attracted their attention (M = 4.50,
SD = 1.81), using a semantic differential scale
Total
in the advertisement?
Yes No
179 5 184
46 66 112
225 71 296
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363

ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (a lot). The
visual priming condition (M = 4.96, SD = 1.56)
attracted participants’ attention more than the
condition without visual priming (M = 2.72,
SD = 1.57), F (1223) = 75.223, P < 0.001. The
results revealed successful manipulations on
visual priming of the disclosure.
Bivariate correlations tests were conducted
to test the relationships between the dependent
variables. The results determined that perceived
trust toward the advertisement (M = 3.69,
SD = 1.55), attitude toward the advertisement
(M = 3.06, SD = 1.48) and attitude toward the
credit card issuer (M = 3.34, SD = 1.46) were
all correlated with each other (P < 0.001). As a
result, MANCOVA was run on perceived trust
toward the advertisement, attitude toward the
advertisement and attitude toward the credit
card issuer as the dependent variables. Visual
priming was used as the fixed factor (or inde-
pendent variable). Participants’ gender, age,
education and income were used as covari-
ates. The multivariate tests reported in Table 2
revealed that visual priming, Wilks’  = 0.95,
F (3216) = 3.747, P < 0.012, had a significant
main effect on the dependent variables. No
covariates were found to contribute to the model
significantly. The tests of between-subjects
effects based on the individual univariate tests
were reported in Table 3.
The condition differences on the three
dependent variables were depicted in Figure 1.
The figure was set up so that the X-axis listed
the conditions of visual priming. The Y-axis
listed the three dependent variables. The partici-
pants in the visual priming condition (M = 4.15,
Table 2: Multivariate tests
Effect Wilks’
Intercept 0.904
Gender 0.968
Age 0.978
Education 0.985
Income 0.994
Priming 0.951
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
The visual priming effect of credit card advertising disclosure
SD = 1.36) perceived stronger trust toward
the advertisement than the participants in the
condition without visual priming (M = 3.54,
SD = 1.43), F (1218) = 6.610, P < 0.011. The
participants in the visual priming condition
(M = 3.46, SD = 1.46) exhibited stronger atti-
tude toward the advertisement than the partici-
pants in the condition without visual priming
(M = 2.64, SD = 1.20), F (1218) = 10.374,
P < 0.001. The participants in the visual
priming condition (M = 3.73, SD = 1.43)
had stronger attitude toward the credit card
issuer than the participants in the condition
without visual priming (M = 3.03, SD = 1.28),
F (1218) = 8.427, P < 0.004. Thus, the hypoth-
eses H1, H2 and H3 were all supported.
To test the hypotheses H4 and H5, a series
of single regression models were obtained
( Judd and Kenny, 1981). Attitude toward the
advertisement was regressed on perceived trust
toward the advertisement ( = 0.57, P < 0.001),
F (1223) = 107.299, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.33. The
results revealed that perceived trust toward
the advertisement positively enhanced attitude
toward the advertisement. Attitude toward the
credit card issuer was regressed on perceived trust
toward the advertisement ( = 0.57, P < 0.001),
F (1223) = 105.563, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.32. The
results revealed that perceived trust toward the
advertisement positively enhanced attitude toward
the credit card issuer. Hence, the hypotheses
H4 and H5 were supported.
To test the hypothesis H6, a multiple regre-
ssion model was used to test for a media-
tion effect (Judd and Kenny, 1981). Attitude
toward the credit card issuer was regressed
F DF P 2
7.680 3216 0.000 0.096
2.393 3216 0.069 0.032
1.639 3216 0.181 0.022
1.103 3216 0.349 0.015
0.401 3216 0.753 0.006
3.747 3216 0.012 0.049
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363 355
 Wang

Table 3: Tests of between-subjects effects

Source Dependent variable DF F P 2

Corrected model Perceived trust toward the advertisement 5 1.491 0.194 0.033
Attitude toward the advertisement 5 3.475 0.005 0.074
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 5 2.663 0.023 0.058
Intercept Perceived trust toward the advertisement 1 14.769 0.000 0.063
Attitude toward the advertisement 1 8.918 0.003 0.039
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 1 18.618 0.000 0.079
Gender Perceived trust toward the advertisement 1 0.069 0.794 0.000
Attitude toward the advertisement 1 0.622 0.431 0.003
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 1 0.762 0.384 0.003
Age Perceived trust toward the advertisement 1 0.079 0.780 0.000
Attitude toward the advertisement 1 1.719 0.191 0.008
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 1 2.788 0.096 0.013
Education Perceived trust toward the advertisement 1 0.144 0.705 0.001
Attitude toward the advertisement 1 2.763 0.098 0.013
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 1 2.167 0.142 0.010
Income Perceived trust toward the advertisement 1 0.000 0.987 0.000
Attitude toward the advertisement 1 0.402 0.526 0.002
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 1 0.000 0.997 0.000
Visual priming Perceived trust toward the advertisement 1 6.610 0.011 0.029
Attitude toward the advertisement 1 10.374 0.001 0.045
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 1 8.427 0.004 0.037
Error Perceived trust toward the advertisement 218 — — —
Attitude toward the advertisement 218 — — —
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 218 — — —
Total Perceived trust toward the advertisement 224 — — —
Attitude toward the advertisement 224 — — —
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 224 — — —
Corrected total Perceived trust toward the advertisement 223 — — —
Attitude toward the advertisement 223 — — —
Attitude toward the credit card issuer 223 — — —

on perceived trust toward the advertisement
( = 0.15, P < 0.001) and attitude toward
the advertisement ( = 0.72, P < 0.001), F
(2222) = 231.131, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.68. An
acceptable mediation held since the stand-
ardized coefficient of perceived trust toward
the advertisement on attitude toward the
credit card issuer was much less in the mul-
tiple regression equation than in the single
regression equation tested for the hypothesis
H5 (Baron and Kenny, 1986).
As Baron and Kenny (1986) have suggested,
the results of three regression equations pro-
vided the tests of the linkages of the medi-
ating effect (Figure 2). The results revealed that
there was a mediation effect as three condi-
tions of mediation held. First, the hypothesis
H4 was supported as perceived trust toward

356 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance Vol. 9, 4, 348–363
 The visual priming effect of credit card advertising disclosure

Perceived trust toward the advertisement

Attitude toward the advertisement
Attitude toward the credit card issuer
4.5

4.15

3.73
3.5 3.54
3.46

3.03

2.64
2.5
No visual priming Visual priming

Figure 1: Effects of visual priming on dependent variables.

Attitude toward is consistent with psychological theories of

the advertisement attention and levels of information processing
 = 0.57  = 0.72 (Greenwald and Leavitt, 1984). Lower levels
of attention toward credit card advertising dis-
 = 0.57
Perceived trust Attitude toward closure direct relatively little cognitive capacity
toward the the credit card and extract information needed to determine
advertisement  = 0.15 issuer
whether a higher level will be invoked. As
higher levels of attention toward the disclo-
Mediation effect Mediator sure are reached, college students may allocate
Direct effect increased cognitive capacity to process the dis-
closure (MacInnis and Jaworski, 1989). In other
words, visual priming transfers college students’
Figure 2: The mediating effect of dependent
processing of the disclosure from preattentive
variables.
stage to focal attention stage (Greenwald and
Leavitt, 1984).
the advertisement positively enhanced attitude Although college students exposed to visual
toward the advertisement. Second, the hypoth- priming may perceive higher levels of trust
esis H5 was supported as perceived trust toward toward the advertisement, the impact of col-
the advertisement positively enhanced attitude lege students’ perceived trust toward a credit
toward the credit card issuer. Finally, attitude card issuer’s advertisement on their attitudes
toward the advertisement positively affected toward the credit card issuer is mediated by
attitude toward the credit card issuer, and per- college students’ attitudes toward the adver-
ceived trust toward the advertisement had less tisement. This has to do with the principle
effect on attitude toward the credit card issuer. of transfer-appropriate processing that plays
Thus, the hypothesis H6 was supported. a critical role in guiding interpretation of
processing (McDowall and Moriarty, 2000;
Mulligan, 2003). Reading the disclosure
DISCUSSION requires more visual priming than remem-
The results reveal that visual priming has the bering specific information (Barry, 2007).
ability to attract college students’ attention Consequently, encoding that emphasizes
toward credit card advertising disclosure. This perceptual processing should materialize

© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance Vol. 9, 4, 348–363 357
 Wang
based on visual priming (Roediger and
McDermott, 1993; Mulligan, 2002; Roediger
et al, 2002).
Contribution
Conceptually, CSR has become a business
imperative as executives are repeatedly informed
that their corporations will gain a competitive
advantage by managing their CSR practices
that may be appealing to the growing num-
bers of socially oriented consumers (David
et al, 2005). Despite the increasing impor-
tance of CSR practices, there has been limited
understanding about variables and processes
involved in consumer response to CSR prac-
tices (David et al, 2005). To date, a majority
of CSR research has been conducted based on
a broad assumption without enough attempts
to identify specific variables involved in the
processes (Wang, 2009). This study advances
understanding of the impact of advertising
disclosure practices by examining how con-
sumers’ processing and attributions influence
their assessments of a company. This study also
extends prior research by investigating a medi-
ator variable, as the impact of perceived trust
toward the advertisement on attitude toward
the credit card issuer is mediated by attitude
toward the advertisement.
The credit card business environment has
fundamentally changed. As entering a new
world in which CSR has become critical to the
success of corporations, corporations should
try to act more responsibly. Practicing adver-
tising disclosures responsibly certainly may
have positive effects on consumer trust and
attitude. One important preprocessing vari-
able examined in this study is visual priming.
As visual priming attracts consumers’ atten-
tion toward credit card advertising disclosure,
increased cognitive capacity to process the
disclosure may enhance consumers’ processing
of the disclosure. In this case, visual priming
serves as sensory buffering for consumers as a
visual prime related to the disclosure causes a
shift of attention to the disclosure ( Janiszewski,
1988).
358 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
Theoretically, this study confirms and adds
to previous research on information processing
and visual communication. Research has dif-
ferentiated information processing at encoding
and retrieval stages and their corresponding
processes (Mulligan and Dew, 2009). The cor-
responding processes focus on either perceptual
or conceptual processing. Whereas the process
focusing on perceptual processing aims to maxi-
mize attentive cognition, conceptual processing
focuses on comprehension and retention
(Mulligan and Dew, 2009). This study sug-
gests that perceptual processing may rely on
visual analysis, as visual priming is effective in
attracting attention (Bettman et al, 1986). This is
evident as visual priming affects attention toward
the disclosure.
More importantly, this study suggests that
visual priming is also effective in stimulating
greater cognitive elaboration (Biederman and
Cooper, 1991; Biederman and Gerhardstein,
1995). The results show that visual priming
influences trust toward the advertisement and
attitudes toward the advertisement and the
credit card issuer positively. The results also
confirm the placement effect of the visual
prime based the matching activation hypoth-
esis ( Janiszewski, 1988, 1990). Placing the
disclosure to the right of the attended visual
prime is an effective strategy in increasing a
greater degree of processing and elaboration
(Greenwald and Leavitt, 1984).
Implications
Congress passed the Fair Credit and Charge Card
Disclosure Act in 1988 to make sure that con-
sumers receive detailed and uniform disclosures
of rates and other cost information related to
credit card accounts. To implement the law, the
Federal Reserve amended its Truth in Lending
regulation. The regulation requires credit card
issuers to reveal important information in a clear
and easy-to-compare manner so that consumers
can shop for the credit card terms that work best
for them. However, credit card issuers can still
opt to place disclosures away from persuasive
messages in their advertisements.
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363

This study’s results are encouraging for credit
card issuers as CSR has increasingly entered
the language of business with the trend toward
sustainable development (David et al, 2005).
In today’s society, consumers are concerned
with corporations’ social responsibility more
than ever in the past. This study shows evi-
dence that consumers’ positive attitudes toward
a credit card issuer can be enhanced when the
credit card issuer visually displayed important
disclosure in an advertisement. This has to do
with the fact that a corporation’s responsible
advertising practice directly or indirectly affects
its corporate image. In fact, research shows
that people notice and read more disclosures
when disclosures are highly noticeable (Barlow
and Wogalter, 1993). Consequently, behav-
ioral compliance increases with increasing vis-
ibility and readability of advertising disclosures
(Frantz and Rhoades, 1993; Braun and Silver,
1995).
In developing more effective advertising
disclosures, managers fundamentally operate
as strategists, who strive to determine how
attributes and visual displays of advertising dis-
closures should be communicated to consumers
in order to achieve favorable attributions and
responses to their advertisements. Strategic
uses of visual priming are perhaps the most
important strategic choices, as the uses of visual
priming may help develop specific perceptual
identifiers that might be considered by con-
sumers in the credit card issues of important
concern under various circumstances.
Congress, the Administration and financial
regulators have taken measures to address some
of the inadequacies in consumer protection
as there is broad consensus on the critical
need for higher standard that holds financial
and banking institutions accountable, protects
consumers and increases transparency in credit
card dealings and communications (Bozzo,
2010). Consumer protection is a critical foun-
dation for the financial system. It gives the
public confidence that credit markets are fair
and enables policymakers to maintain stability
in regulation. Stable regulation, in turn, pro-
© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
The visual priming effect of credit card advertising disclosure
motes growth and efficiency over the long
term. This study hopes to shed some light on
possible regulatory reforms to enhance trans-
parency in the credit card advertising context.
Preemptively, visual priming may be effective
in attracting consumers’ attention to process
credit card advertising disclosures. Proactively,
policymakers need to ensure that credit card
advertising disclosures are not only developed
well, but also visually available to consumers.
Study limitations and future
research
When interpreting the findings from this study,
some of the limitations should be taken into
consideration. This study acknowledges the
limitation of using a small and non-probability
sampling method. Future research should
use a more diverse sample to generalize this
study’s results. This study also acknowledges
that demand artifacts may cause demand cues
and promote hypothesis guessing (Allen, 2004).
This systematic biased response tendency can
be a threat to inferences made by this study.
Future research may use Post-Experimental
Inquiry, commonly accepted as an approach
for assessing demand bias (Allen and Janiszewski
1989; Allen, 2004) to control potential demand
artifacts. Future research should also attempt
to isolate the operation of key mediators in
generating demand bias in the context of this
study. By holding the experimental procedure
constant, insights about demand artifacts may
be revealed over the course of future research
related to this study.
On a related note, a limitation has to do
with college students’ motivation to process
credit card advertising disclosures. This study
argues that whether the effects of visual priming
occur may depend on the degree of motivation
a college student has to process the disclo-
sure. The variation in the correspondence of
motivation and visual priming may raise an
important future research area. For example,
motivated college students may be more likely
to examine credit card advertisements exten-
sively when presented to them. Thus, visual
Vol. 9, 4, 348–363 359
 Wang
priming may not be essential to motivated
college students, as they may process the dis-
closures in credit card advertisements with or
without any visual primes. Thus, visual priming
may be more effective in attracting less moti-
vated college students to process the disclosures
in credit card advertisements than motivated
college students.
Finally, the reviewer has suggested that
class standing, the number of credit cards
and amount of debt students have may prime
them to seek out disclosure information. For
example, a student with three credit cards and
$3000 of debt may be more inclined to search
for disclosure information than a student with
one credit card and no debt. Thus, visual
priming may be helpful to those college stu-
dents, as visual priming may help them locate
the disclosures in credit card advertisements.
On the other hand, visual priming may not be
important to college students with one credit
card and no debt. Thus, future research should
examine class standing, the number of credit
cards and amount of debt as covariates or main
variables.
CONCLUSION
Given the increasing concern over credit card
advertising disclosures and popularity of CSR,
this study examines the visual priming effects on
college students’ perceived trust toward a credit
card issuer’s advertisement, attitudes toward the
advertisement and attitude toward the credit
card issuer. Importantly, this study focuses vari-
ables on specific settings and raises questions
relating to the importance of credit card adver-
tising disclosures and responsible practices of
credit card advertising. The results suggest that
the positive effects of visual priming of credit
card advertising disclosure are encouraging
for corporations such as credit card issuers.
Although attitude toward a credit card’s adver-
tisement can mediate perceived trust toward
the advertisement on attitude toward the credit
card issuer, it is important for credit card issuers
to continue enhancing their practices of adver-
tising disclosures responsibly.
360 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1741-3591 International Journal of Disclosure and Governance
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