Priming effect in online forums: the influence of affective priming on users’ responses to online advertisements

Abstract

This thesis investigates affective priming effect on users’ responses to online advertisements. Priming effect is a phenomenon emerging when an exposure to a certain stimulus influences the perception of the subsequent stimulus. The priming effect has been studied by both psychologists and marketers, since its unconscious nature provide great possibilities for understanding and managing humans’ judging and behaviour. This paper concentrates on affective priming effect occurring in the online space, particularly in online discussion forums. Ad-context congruence and emotional discussion tones were studied as possible influencing factors on response to the ads. Response to the online advertisements was studied by five variables: attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand, ad recall, ad recognition, and probability of click. Controlled experiment was implemented to gather the data by providing respondents with fictitious discussion forum screenshot and embedded advertisements of fictitious products. The findings indicate that positive tone of a discussion and contextually related ads lead to more favorable evaluation of the advertised brand, while not having influence on other dependent variables. The results provide insight into affective priming effect online and suggest paths for the further researches in the field.