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Different Impacts of Advertising Appeals on Advertising Attitude for High

and Low Involvement Products

Article  in  Global Business Review · May 2015

DOI: 10.1177/0972150915569936

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Article

Different Impacts of Advertising Global Business Review

16(3) 478–493
Appeals on Advertising Attitude for © 2015 IMI
SAGE Publications
High and Low Involvement Products sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0972150915569936
http://gbr.sagepub.com

Mahsa Akbari1

Abstract
The aim of this study is to fill the existing gaps in the marketing literature, by providing a comprehen-

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sive comparison of rational versus emotional appeals based on high and low involvement products to
increase advertising effectiveness. Further, this article is an attempt to test, empirically, the effect of dif-

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ferent advertising appeals on advertising attitude and consumer purchase decision. Quasi-experimental

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design method is used in this study to investigate the impacts of different rational and emotional

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appeals for different product categories (high and low involvement product). Sunscreen and laptop
are considered as low involvement and high involvement products, respectively. 160 undergraduate
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students participated in this experiment from Iranian universities (Islamic Azad Tehran University).
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In this experiment, participants were randomly exposed to four persuasive messages for each product.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test and regression analysis were used to test the impacts of appeals
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for high and low involvement products. Our study shows that both advertising appeals (rational and
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emotional) have a positive effect on advertising attitude and purchase intention. Whereas for low
involvement products emotional appeals have a more significant effect on advertising attitude, for high
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involvement products rational appeals are more influential. This research not only concentrates on the
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impacts of different emotional and rational appeals, but also provides beneficial insight of advertising
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appeals for advertising practitioners and academics on designing different product categories (high and
low involvement products).
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Keywords
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Advertising appeals, rational appeals, emotional appeals, advertising attitude, involvement, purchase
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intention
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Introduction
Advertising has a powerful influence on consumers and often generates consumer need. Advertising is
vitally important for free markets, but its action is subtle and its discovery is fragile. If advertisements

1
PhD, Department of Business Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Marketing
Instructor, Department of Industrial Management, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch and Azad Electronic Branch, Iran.

Corresponding author:
Mahsa Akbari, PhD, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
E-mail: akbari.mahsa@gmail.com
Akbari 479

are not initially effective, repetition will not make them more effective (Tellis, 2004). The effectiveness
of advertising has been a matter of endless discussion for several decades. As advertisers increasingly
seek greater communication effectiveness, more careful consideration needs to be given to the selection
of the type of advertising appeal used for each target group (MacKenzie, Lutz & Belch, 1986).
The advertiser uses the word appeal to emphasis on the creativity. Appeals do not always have all the
product has attributed but they create an atmosphere where the target audience desires are evoked
towards the product. Different appeals enhance effectiveness of advertisements that evoke some
emotional reaction in the viewer’s mind (Mishra, 2009). Appeals need to be unique and need to give a
positive impression about the product to the target audience. A growing body of advertising literature
existed, which focused on the different types of advertisement appeals: rational versus emotional (Li, Li
& Zhao, 2009; Wang, 2008).
The proposition that buyers can make their purchasing decisions for rational and/or emotional reasons

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has been responsible for a significant amount of research among consumer psychologists (Albers-Miller
& Stafford, 1999). Inevitably, this issue has attracted the interest of both advertising scholars and
practitioners, since advertising appeals provide an effective tool for stimulating consumer buyer

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behaviour through the transmission of informational or experiential elements to end-product users (Edell,

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1990). Thus, a definite distinction has been drawn between rational and emotional appeals: while the

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rational appeals concentrate on the rational thinking process of the consumer, whereby the functional
needs for a product or brand and their measurable benefits play a crucial role, the emotional appeals
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considerably targets the consumer’s psychological, social or symbolic needs, aiming to stir up feelings
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and bring into play an affection mechanism that will finally motivate the consumer to purchase products
(Leonidou & Leonidou, 2009).
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A quick review of extant literature reveals that despite the importance of advertising appeals and
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attitude towards advertising, lack of clear understanding of the impacts of different rational and emotional
appeals on attitude towards advertising and purchase intension remained unresolved. In addition, in spite
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of the growing concern for the rational versus emotional nature of advertising appeals during the last few
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decades, there is a lack of knowledge about the execution aspects of each appeal on different product
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categories. Moreover, comparisons between the effects of these appeals on low and high involvement
products were not studied in marketing literature. This research not only concentrates on the impacts of
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different emotional and rational appeals but also provides beneficial insights of advertising appeals for
different product categories (high and low involvement products).
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To summarize, the aim of this study is to fill the aforementioned gaps in the marketing literature and
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providing a comprehensive comparison of rational versus emotional appeals based on high and low
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involvement products. Further, this article is an attempt to test empirically the effect of different
advertising appeals on advertising attitude and consumer purchase decision.
The rest of the article is organized as follows: first, the extant literature on rational versus emotional
advertising appeals, attitude towards advertising and purchase intention is reviewed and consolidated;
second, the methodology adopted for conducting the current research is explained; third, research
findings are presented; finally, discussions and implications section concludes the article by providing
the conceptual and managerial implications.

Literature Review
Advertising Appeal
The message strategy, also referred to as the appeal, is the general overall approach that the advertisement
adopts (Mortimer, 2008). Berkman and Gilson (1987) defined advertising appeal as an attempt at
480 Global Business Review 16(3)

creativity that inspires consumers’ motives for purchase and affects consumers’ attitude towards a
specific product or service. Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) defined advertising appeal as suppliers’
application of a psychological motivating power to arouse consumers’ desire and action for buying
while sending broadcasting signals to change receivers’ concepts of the product. Recently, Lepkowska-
White, Brashear and Weinberger (2003) mentioned that advertising appeals should be matched with
product types in terms of the type of ‘information search’ carried out by consumers. For instance, Johar
and Sirgy (1991) claimed that for highly involved consumers, utilitarian information is more effective,
and for consumers who are not involved with a product, value expressive advertisements are more
persuasive.
Advertising is often considered within a framework that identifies advertising appeals as basically
either rational or emotional (Solomon, 1992). Rational advertising stems from traditional information
processing models emphasizing that a consumer believed to make logical and rational decisions

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about products, primarily by showing product benefits such as product quality, value or performance
(Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999). Therefore, rational appeals defined as the degree focusing on rational

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purchase. Kotler (2003) opined that rational appeal is based on logic and products are being sold by
highlighting their attributes, quality, its problem solving capacity and its performance (Churchill & Peter,

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1998). Rational appeals in advertisement trying to impart important information about a product or

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service such as features or benefits of the product or service or comparison with other products or ser-

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vices and trying to put in the consumer’s mind that their product or service is best (Moriarty, 1991;
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Watson et al., 1988).
There are different classifications that existed for rational appeals. Stern et al. (1981) and Davies
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(1993) classified rational appeals into three groups: physical attributes, incentive offer and evidence.
Rossiter and Donovan (1991) categorized rational appeals into Refreshments, Logic, Educative informa-
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tion (Verma, 2009). Other classification like feature appeal focuses on important traits and features of the
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product. Information content with this kind of advertisement is rich which is used by high involvement
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product (Mishra, 2009).

Although rational appeals are built on the facts and reason, information and logic, emotional appeals
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generally intend to create positive emotions and develop a brand personality. Emotional appeals are
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those appearing to generate either positive or negative feelings to create a positive emotional association
with a product (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999). Emotional advertising has been proven to affect
customers’ reactions to, advertisements (Edell & Burke, 1987), to enhance their attention (Olney,
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Holbrook & Batra, 1991) and to affect brand attitudes (Aaker, Stayman & Hagerty, 1986). Emotional
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appeals were more effective when brand response involvement and advertising message involvement
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are low, since rational appeals became more effective when customers are highly involved with the
brand and the advertisement (Baker & Lutz, 2000).
Moriarty (1991) mentioned 11 types of emotional appeals: excitement, fear (danger, personal embar-
rassment), family (love, protection), guilt, love (affection, romance), nostalgia, pleasure (humour, hap-
piness and joy), poignancy, pride, relief and sorrow (grief, suffering). In addition, Hoyer and MacInnis
(1997) cited that emotional appeals elicit emotions such as love, wanting, joy, hope, excitement, daring,
fear, anger, shame or rejection (Verma, 2009).
The importance of advertising appeals has emphasized in different studies. Mattila (2001) focused on
the relative effectiveness of emotional versus rational appeals in advertising services to potential new
customers. Moon and Chan (2005) explained the differences between advertising appeals in Hong
Kong and Korea. Ruiz and Silicia (2004) proclaimed that advertising appeals can divide by cognitive
and/or affective processing styles among consumers. Leonidou and Leonidou (2009) investigated on
Rational Versus Emotional Appeals in Newspaper Advertising: Copy, Art, and Layout Differences.
Akbari 481

Verma (2009) examined the influence of both emotional and rational appeals on consumer purchasing
decision. Lin (2011) studied the impact of advertising appeals and advertising spokespersons on adver-
tising attitudes and purchase intentions. Geuens, De Pelsmacker and Faseur (2011) noted that emotional
advertising has great impacts on attitude towards advertising and product category is an important vari-
able in choosing the advertising strategy.
This article focuses on two rational appeals which are proposed by Stern et al. (1981): Quality and
Factual information. For emotional appeals fear, pleasure and pride appeals are considered. Fear and
pleasure appeals for low involvement products (sunscreen) and pleasure and pride appeal for high
involvement products (laptop) were drawn from the earlier research done by Moriarty (1991).
The concept of attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) can be defined as ‘a predisposition to react
in a favorable or an unfavorable way to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular exposure
occasion’ (Solomon, 1992). Attitude towards advertising is an important concept and considered as one

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of the determinants of attitude towards specific advertisements (Lutz, 1985).
Purchase intention is one type of judgement about how an individual intends to purchase a specific

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brand. Variables such as considering buying a brand, expecting to buy a brand and attitude towards
advertising measure purchase intention (Laroche, Kim & Zhou, 1996; Laroche & Sadokierski, 1994;

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MacKenzie et al., 1986).

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Framework of Analysis
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Advertising practitioners have used various types of advertising appeals to form and change attitudes to
persuade consumers to buy (Edell & Burke, 1987). The precise effects of rational versus emotional
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appeals are hard to gauge (Solomon, 1992). Whereas the rational approach is used more with thinking
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products, the emotional approach is more proper if product ownership and consumption are more closely
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related to feelings (Leonidou & Leonidou, 2009). Rational appeals tend to work best for ‘utilitarian’
products, such as high-technology consumer products and industrial goods, as opposed to emotional
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appeals that are more suitable for ‘value-expressive’ products, such as convenience products and
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specialty goods (Johar & Sirgy, 1991). Both appeals have an effect on advertising attitude. Schiffman
and Kanuk (2007) indicated that advertising appeal may change consumer attitude.
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The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), postulated by Petty and Cacioppo (1986), supports the
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relationship between an advertisement and change in customer attitude. The ELM distinguishes two
routes through which an advertisement may influence the customer: a central route and a peripheral
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route. The ELM model argues that the impacts of advertising on customer attitude related to the degree
of elaboration of the message through either a high-involvement central (systematic) processing route or
a low-involvement peripheral processing route.
In this study, sunscreen considered as a low involvement product and fell into the peripheral route
category versus laptop as a high involvement product and fell into the central route category. Attitude
formations of these products’ are influenced by rational and emotional appeals. Based on the above
literature review, the first and second hypotheses for this study develop as below:
H1: Rational appeals have a significantly positive effect on advertising attitude on low involvement
products.
H2: Emotional appeals have a significantly positive effect on advertising attitude on low involvement
products.
If customers are highly involved in an advertised product when exposed to the ad, they are more likely
to ignite the central processing route, where customers will consume a great deal of effort in processing
482 Global Business Review 16(3)

the message, and expound on ideas in the message. However, when customers are not involved in
the product, then the advertisement processed through the peripheral route (Chaoying et al., 2011). The
association also plays a key role in the peripheral route where good feelings, attractiveness and relate
to a specific image, product, company or personal cause persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). In
comparison to rational appeals, emotional appeals contain much less information, which is mainly of a
subjective nature. This is responsible for building affective impressions of the tangible aspects of the
product, which are open to individual consumer interpretation (Belch & Belch, 1990). Thus, emotional
appeals might be more effective in low involvement product on forming advertising attitude. Therefore,
the following hypothesis proposes:
H2a: Emotional appeals have a more significant positive effect on advertising attitudes than rational
appeal of a low involvement product.
High involvement products tend to be those products that are important to consumers and therefore

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need more time and information in the buying decision process. The ELM emphasizes that people tend
to process information about these products through the central route of persuasion (Perloff, 2003).

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Consumers with high involvement in purchase evaluate advertising information more thoroughly
than people with low involvement (Mantel & Kardes, 1999; Peltier & Schibrowsky, 1994). Such

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consumers who have a high need for cognition often need rational reasons before buying any product.

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Thus, in such cases, consumer response can be initiated by offering information, rich advertisements

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(Maclnnis & Jaworski, 1989; Petty et al., 1983; Suri & Monroe, 2001). In addition, this model posits that
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attitude formation should be greater under conditions of high involvement. However, this holds for
messages using central routes to persuade, such as those found in rational, argument-based messages.
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Referring to above literature following hypotheses, develop:

H3: Rational appeals have a significantly positive effect on advertising attitude on high involvement
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products.
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H3a: Rational appeals have a more significant positive effect on advertising attitudes than emotional
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appeals on high involvement products.

H4: Emotional appeals have a significantly positive effect on advertising attitude on high involvement
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products.
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Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) elucidated that attitude can affect purchase intentions. Shamdasani
et al. (2001) indicated that purchase intentions are the possibility of a consumer buying something or
the degree to which he/she recommends a product. Kotler (2003) pointed out that consumers’ adver-
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tising attitudes stem from the cognitive evaluation, emotional feelings and action orientation that
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represents long-lasting likes or dislikes towards a product brand or general feeling in an advertisement
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(Lin, 2011).
Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) elaborated purchase intention as the decision-making process
consumers show in their request for information, purchase, evaluation, utilization and disposal of a
product or service to meet their demands. Attitude towards the ad is a strong mediator of advertising
effectiveness (Batra & Ray, 1986; Homer, 1990) and different studies have shown a strong positive
relationship between the advertising attitude and purchase intention. Accordingly, it hypothesizes that
H5: Advertising attitudes have a significant positive effect on purchase intentions.

Conceptual Structure
The purpose of this study is to discuss the effects of different advertising appeals on advertising attitude
and consumer purchase decision. Figure 1 shows conceptual model of this study.
Akbari 483

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Figure 1. Conceptual Model for Low Involvement Product (Sunscreen)

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Source: Author’s own.

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Methodology
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To explore the intricate nature of this issue, we conduct the scenario-based quasi-experimental design.
One experiment conducts for low involvement group (sunscreen) and other experiment for high
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involvement category (laptop). Experiment 1 explored the effect of different advertising appeals
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(two rational and two emotional appeals) on advertising attitude and consumer purchase decision
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for sunscreen and experiment two clarified the effect of different advertising appeals (two rational
and two emotional appeals) on the mentioned variables for laptop. The following manifestation will
illustrate two scenarios in these cases.

Experiment 1
In this experiment, participants were randomly exposed to four persuasive messages for a low involve-
ment product (sunscreen). In this study, four conditions for each persuasive message developed.
Conditions 1 and 2 contained fear appeal and pleasure appeal. Conditions 3 and 4 contained informa-
tional appeal and quality appeal. Conditions 1 and 2 classified as emotional appeals and conditions 3 and
4 as rational appeals. The following scenario will put forward for each condition for each participant.
‘Imagine that you are in the taxi and you hear this persuasive message from radio’:
484 Global Business Review 16(3)

Condition 1 = group 1(persuasive message 1): Scientific evidence supports that the skin of people
who did not use sunscreen wrinkle 40 per cent more due to sun exposure in comparison to regular users
and the risk of skin cancer increases considerably for them.
Condition 2 = group 2(persuasive message 2): According to scientific studies, people who used
sunscreen regularly have a better feeling for protecting their skin. So they feel fresh and pleasure.
Condition 3 = group 3(persuasive message 3): Sunscreens which have been recently produced
contained herbal compounds, anti-inflammatory combination, and manufacturer tried not to use chemical
ingredients.
Condition 4 = group 4(persuasive message 4): The anti-perspiration ingredient of sunscreens has
a high quality, without feeling heavy on the skin.
Sample and Experimental Procedure: 160 undergraduate students participated in this experiment for
partial course credit. It consisted of 160 subjects, of whom 49.3 per ent were male and 50.7 per cent were

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female. As student gender was not a variable of interest in the current study, it is treated as a control
variable and was equally considered. In terms of age, 23.1 per cent were under 20 years old, 76.9 per cent

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were between 20 and 28 years old. In this experiment, participants were randomly exposed to four
persuasive messages for a low involvement product (sunscreen). The persuasive messages adopted

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here motivate consumers to buy this product. The experiment conducted at the Islamic Azad Tehran

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University. For each condition 40 students assigned randomly.

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After exposing to persuasive message, all participants asked to state their attitude towards advertising
in terms of their condition (groups) and they answered the attitude towards advertising questions. Then,
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they asked to state their purchase intention in term of buying sunscreen and answered the related
questions. After completing the study, the participants debriefed and thanked for their participation.
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Measures
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We used multi-item scales to measure the model constructs. Literature from advertising, psychology
and marketing provide the basis for this measurement.
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Attitude towards the ad (Aad)

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A five-item, 7-point scale Muehling and McCann (1993) whose bipolar anchors were bad/good, dislike/
like, not interesting/interesting, irritating/not irritating and not convincing/convincing. The Cronbach
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alpha for this scale was 0.88. The scale of attitude toward the ad has been shown in the appendix.

Purchase Intention (PI)

A three-item, purchase-intention scale used (Stafford,1996; Yi, 1990), with anchors of likely/unlikely,
possible/impossible, and probable/improbable). The Cronbach alpha for this scale was 0.97. The scale of
purchase intention has been shown in the appendix.

Results
T-test was first conducted to determine the effect of rational appeals and emotional appeals on advertising
attitude (see Table 1). For both appeals (rational and emotional) P = 0.000 < 0.05 indicating statistical
Akbari 485

Table 1. One-Sample Test

Test Value = 3.5

Advertising Attitude Mean Standard Deviation t Df Sig. (2-tailed)
Emotional Appeals 5.1275 .90526 16.080 79 .000
Rational Appeals 4.1113 1.37932 3.964 79 .000
a < 0.05
Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.

Table 2. Rational and Emotional Appeals on Advertising Attitude: T-test for Equality of Means

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Levene’s test For Equality
of Variances

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F Sig. t df Sig.
Advertising attitude 12.905 .000 5.509 136.406 .000

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a < 0.05

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Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.

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significance. Based on the results, rational and emotional have a significantly positive effect on
advertising attitude on low involvement products. Therefore, H1 and H2 are supported.
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For H2a T-test conducted to compare the result of emotional appeals with rational appeals
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on advertising attitude. As shown in Table 2, Levene’s test for equality of variances is significant
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(F = 12.905, p = 0.000), which means that there are significant differences between rational and emotional
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appeals on advertising attitude. Based on Table 1, the mean presented by emotional appeal was (5.1275),
which is greater than rational appeal (4.1113). This means that emotional appeal resulted in better
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advertising attitudes in this product. Consequently, H2a supports and emotional appeals have a more
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significant positive effect on advertising attitudes than rational appeals.

For comparing the effect of different advertising appeals ANOVA post-hoc comparison was
conducted. As Table 3 shows, there is a significant difference between fear appeal and quality appeal
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(0.000 < 0.05). Because lower and upper bound are positive. Fear appeal has more significant effects
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than quality appeal. In addition, there is a substantial difference between pleasure appeal and infor-
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mational and quality appeal (0.000, 0.13 < 0.05). Pleasure appeal has more significant effects than
informational and quality appeal. Therefore, H2b supports and there is a significant difference between
fear, pleasure, informational and quality appeals on advertising attitude.
The overall regression model yields a significant statistic (F = 5.107, sig. = 0.025) with advertising
attitude (b = 0.177, t = 2.260, sig. = 0.025) which means that advertising attitude have a significantly
positive effect on purchase intentions as shown in Table 4. Therefore, H5 is supported.

Discussion
Taken together, results in Study 1 indicated that rational and emotional appeals both have a significant
impact on advertising attitude and purchase intention. While rational appeals have an influential effect
on forming advertising attitude, emotional appeals have more much effect on advertising attitude at the
486 Global Business Review 16(3)

Table 3. ANOVA Result and Multiple Comparison between Appeals with Tukey Analysis
Advertising attitude
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 49.673 3 16.558 12.498 .000
Within Groups 206.677 156 1.325
Total 256.350 159

Mean 95% Confidence Interval

Factor (I) Factor (J) Difference (I–J) Sig. Lower Bound Upper Bound
Tukey FEAR PLEASURE –.17500 .905 –.8434 .4934
HSD INFORMATION .61750 .081 –.0509 1.2859
QUALITY 1.24000* .000 .5716 1.9084

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PLEASURE FEAR .17500 .905 –.4934 .8434
INFORMATION .79250* .013 .1241 1.4609

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QUALITY 1.41500* .000 .7466 2.0834
INFORMATION FEAR –.61750 .081 –1.2859 .0509

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PLEASURE –.79250* .013 –1.4609 –.1241

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QUALLITY .62250 .078 –.0459 1.2909
QUALITY FEAR –1.24000* .000 –1.9084 –.5716
PLEASURE –1.41500*
C .000 –2.0834 –.7466
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INFORMATION –.62250 .078 –1.2909 .0459
Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.
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Table 4. Analysis Regression Model Summary

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Dependent Variable F Sig. Independent Variables b t Sig.

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Purchase Intention 5.107 .025 Advertising attitude .177 2.260 .025

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a< 0.05
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Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.

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low involvement product. In addition, between emotional appeals, pleasure and fear appeals have the
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most salient impact on advertising attitude in comparison to other appeals. Ultimately, all hypotheses are
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supported.

Experiment 2
In this experiment, participants were randomly exposed to four persuasive messages for high involvement
product (laptop). In this study, four conditions for each persuasive message developed. Conditions 1 and
2 contained informational appeal and quality appeal. Conditions 3 and 4 contained pleasure appeal and
pride appeal. Conditions 1 and 2 are classified as rational and conditions 3 and 4 as emotional appeals.
The following scenario will be put forward:
‘Imagine that you are in the taxi and you hear this persuasive message from radio’:
Condition 1 = group 1 (persuasive message 1): New laptops which have been recently manufactured
have higher performance and speed.
Akbari 487

Table 5. One-Sample Test

Test Value = 3.5

Advertising Attitude Mean Standard Deviation T df Sig. (2-tailed)
Emotional Appeals 3.8407 1.45308 4.588 79 .000
Rational Appeals 4.6850 1.57248 9.584 79 .000
Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.

Condition 2 = group 2 (persuasive message 2): Research has shown newly manufactured laptops
have very good quality and at least five years’ useful life expectancy.

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Condition 3 = group 3 (persuasive message 3): Research has shown that people who learnt how to
work with the laptop properly are happier and more energized.
Condition 4 = group 4 (persuasive message 4): Research has shown that people who learnt how to

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work with laptop properly have more self-confidence, become more successful and take pride at their

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occupation.

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Sample and Experimental Procedure: In both experiments, participants were the same. Subjects were

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160 undergraduate students of whom 49.3 per cent were male and 50.7 per cent were female. Participants
were randomly exposed to four persuasive messages for a high involvement product (laptop). The
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experiment conducted at the Islamic Azad Tehran University. For each condition 40 students assigned
randomly. Like experiment 1, after exposing to persuasive message advertising, all participants answered
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the attitude toward advertising and purchase intention questions.

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Result and Finding

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T-test was first conducted to determine the effect of rational appeals and emotional appeals on advertising
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attitude (Table 5). For both appeals P = 0.000 < 0.05 indicating statistical significance. Based on the
results, rational and emotional have a much more positive effect on advertising attitude. Therefore, H3
and H4 are supported.
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For H3a T-test conducted to compare the result of emotional appeals with rational appeals on
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advertising attitude. As Table 6 shows Levene’s test is significant (F = 4.52, p = 0.000), which means
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significant differences between rational and emotional appeals on advertising attitude. Based on Table 5,
the mean presented by rational appeal was (4.6850), which is greater than emotional appeal (3.8407).
This implies that rational appeal resulted in better advertising attitudes for this product. Consequently,

Table 6. Rational and Emotional Appeals on Advertising Attitude: T-test for Equality of Means

Levene’s Test for Equality

of Variances
F Sig. t df Sig.
Advertising attitude 4.52 .000 5.509 136.406 .000
a < 0.05
Source: Author’s calculations based on SPSS.
488 Global Business Review 16(3)

Table 7. ANOVA Result and Multiple Comparison between Appeals with Tukey Analysis
Advertising attitude
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 59.315 3 19.772 9.157 .000
Within Groups 336.844 156 2.159
Total 396.159 159

Mean 95% Confidence Interval

Factor (I) Factor (J) Difference (I–J) Sig. Lower Bound Upper Bound
Tukey INFORMATION QUALITY .57000 .309 –.2833 1.4233
HSD PLEASURE .83000 .060 –.0233 1.6833
PRIDE 1.69000* .000 .8367 2.5433

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QUALITY INFORMATION –.57000 .309 –1.4233 .2833
PLEASURE .26000 .858 –.5933 1.1133

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PRIDE 1.12000* .005 .2667 1.9733
PLEASURE INFORMATION –.83000 .060 –1.6833 .0233

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QUALITY –.26000 .858 –1.1133 .5933

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PRIDE .86000* .047 .0067 1.7133
PRIDE INFORMATION –1.69000* .000 –2.5433 –.8367
QUALITY –1.12000*
C .005 –1.9733 –.2667
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PLEASURE –.86000* .047 –1.7133 –.0067
Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.
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H3a supports and rational appeals have a more positive effect on advertising attitudes than emotional
appeals.
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To compare the effect of different advertising appeals ANOVA post-hoc comparison was con-
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ducted. As Table 7 shows, there is a significant difference between informational appeal and price appeal
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(0.000 < 0.05). Although both bound are positive, as the Table 7 shows, informational appeal has more
significant effects than pride appeal based on the mean difference factor (1.69000). Also, there is a
significant difference between quality and pleasure appeals with pride (0.005 < 0.05) and both have more
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significant effects than pride appeal. Therefore, H3b is partly supported and there is a significant
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difference between pride appeal and pleasure, informational and quality appeals on advertising attitude
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on high involvement products. However, between other appeals (informational, quality and pleasure)
no significant differences existed.
The overall regression model yields a significant statistic (F = 8.959, sig. = 0.003) with advertising
attitude (b = 0.232, t = 2.993, sig. = 0.003) which means that advertising attitude have a more positive
effect on purchase intentions as shown in Table 8. Therefore, H5 is supported.

Table 8. Analysis Regression Model Summary

Dependent Variable F Sig. Independent Variables b t Sig.

Purchase intention 8.959 .003 Advertising attitude .232 2.993 .003
a < 0.05
Source: Author’s calculations done with SPSS.
Akbari 489

Discussion
Taken together, results in Study 2 indicated that while emotional appeals have the substantial effect on
forming advertising attitude, rational appeals have more dramatic effect on the advertising attitude of
high involvement products. In addition, between emotional appeals, pride appeal has less considerable
impacts on the advertising attitude in comparison to others. Ultimately, all hypotheses are supported,
except hypothesis H3b which is partially supported because between other appeals no significant
differences existed.

Conclusions

SE
This research aims to contribute advertising and consumer behaviour’s literature by proposing effects of
different advertising appeal in two product category. Different advertising appeals affect consumer

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thoughts on the product and purchase decisions (Belch & Belch, 1998). In fact, consumers have particular
impressions of different advertising appeals. Some research revealed that rational appeal has a more

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significant effect on advertising attitudes (Lin, 2011), while some other explained that emotional appeal

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creates more underlying effects on advertising attitudes based on product type (Solomon, 1992).
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The main contribution of this study is to fill the existing gaps in the marketing literature by providing
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a comprehensive comparison of rational versus emotional appeals based on high and low involvement
products. The essential findings of this study are as follows: First, rational appeals and emotional appeals
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have a significantly positive effect on advertising attitude. Second, emotional appeals have a more signifi-
cant positive effect on advertising attitudes than rational appeal of a low involvement product. Third,
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rational appeals have a significantly positive effect on advertising attitude on high involvement products.
O

Fourth, there are significant differences between various rational and emotional appeals. Fifth, advertising
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attitudes have a significantly positive effect on purchase intentions. In fact, for low involvement products
emotional appeals have a more underlying effect, since for high involvement product rational appeals are
R

more influential. To a large extent these differences show the entirely opposite perspectives adopted by
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each advertising appeal, with execution elements in rational advertisements revolving mainly around
objectivity, functionality and utilitarianism, as opposed to emotional advertising elements that are charac-
T

terized more by subjectivity, emotionalism and value-expressiveness (Leonidou & Leonidou, 2009).
O

In addition, the obtained results suggest that among all appeals, the ones that depict fear and pleasure
affect consumer purchase decisions dramatically on the low involvement product. Consumers are prone
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to pay more attention to emotional persuasive messages while they pay less attention to rational appeals
like information and quality. On the other hand, on high involvement product’s emotional appeals are
less influential and the persuasive messages belong to those appeals, particularly pride, which did not
create a special influence on the consumer’s purchase decision. However, message depicting logic such
as information and quality were more important in purchase decision. Finally, all hypotheses support
except Hypothesis H3b on high involvement product which is partially supported. As mentioned, on
high involvement product, pride appeal has less effect on advertising attitude; however, between other
appeals (informational, quality and pleasure) no significant differences are existed. The results of this
study reinforce the proposed view by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) and strengthen the effects of attitudes
on purchase intentions.
There are many practical implications of the current study. Our overall findings generate relevant
insights that are more directly applicable by marketers and advertisers. The research results not only
confirm the different effects of rational and emotional appeal on purchase intention, but also provide
490 Global Business Review 16(3)

insights for advertising practitioners in designing their advertising programmes, by focusing on particular
appeals that are better suited to their specific products group. Moreover, it is essential to emphasize that
all advertisement appeals are not equally attractive and consumers get influenced by only some of them,
particularly in various products’ group these differences might be more obvious. When the advertising
appeal with most likeability determines, the advertisers would estimate the relative importance of these
appeals in terms of perceptions of the targeted market. Then, managers and advertisement agencies can
design appropriate advertisements. Such differential strategies will assist to increase the attractiveness of
advertising messages and finally it leads to advertising effectiveness.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

SE
Some limitations inherited in this study, which offer avenues for future research. First, to expand the
generalization of the results, research with broader subject populations needs and it would be more

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plausible to consider broader range of subjects beside students. In fact, several researchers have
challenged the validity of research using students’ samples (Sears, 1986; Soley & Reid, 1983; Wells,

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1993). However, the student sample is representative of the demographic make-up of the consumers in

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Iran. Perhaps future research could be conducted on non-student samples.

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Second, the most severe limitation of this exploratory study was its quasi-experimental nature. This
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study concentrated on the subjects’ immediate response to the persuasive message. The subjects’
responses might have been different if they had watched printed or TV advertisement or they had
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repeatedly exposed to mentioned persuasive message for a longer period.

Third, due to the cultural factors that characterize the sample of a study, the results may confine to
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Iran; thus, examining similar research in other countries with different cultures will suggest to future
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researchers.
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Our finding provides the impetus for additional research for examining more appeals such as affection,
humour and nostalgia to determine advertising attitude towards different brands. It would also be
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intriguing to extend the proposed framework towards using the different advertising media such as TV,
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radio and the Internet and make related comparison. Ultimately, measuring attitude towards the brand
beside mentioned factor would be practical.
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Acknowledgements
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The author is grateful to the anonymous referees of the journal for their extremely useful suggestions to improve the
quality of the article. Usual disclaimers apply.

Appendix

Scale items for attitude towards the ad

1. Good/bad: Strongly Agree 7………………………………………………..1 Strongly Disagree

2. Like/dislike: Strongly Agree 7……………………………………………….1 Strongly Disagree
3. Interesting/not interesting: Strongly Agree 7………………………………1 Strongly Disagree
4. Not Irritating/irritating: Strongly Agree 7………………....……………..1 Strongly Disagree
5. Convincing/convincing: Strongly Agree 7…………………………………1 Strongly Disagree
Akbari 491

Scale Items for Purchase Intention

SCALE ITEMS:

1. Would you be more likely to purchase the product, given the information shown? (Strongly
Agree 7……………………………………………..1 Strongly Disagree) more likely/less likely.
2. Given the information shown, how probable is it that you would consider the purchase of the
product? (Strongly Agree 7……………………………………………..1 Strongly Disagree)
very probable/not probable.
3. How likely would you be to purchase the product, given the information shown? (Strongly Agree
7……………………………………………..1 Strongly Disagree) very likely/very unlikely.

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