Chapter 6: Attitude Based on Low Effort

Attitudes based on Low Effort

• TLDR: In low-effort situations, attitudes are shaped by simple cues, emotions, and repetition, not deep thinking.

Tools marketers can use:

• Repetition & exposure

• Emotional pairing (classical/evaluative conditioning)

• Credible, simple, consistent messages

• Good vibes (likable ads, mood-based tactics)

• Heuristics (shortcuts: famous, attractive, many arguments, etc.)

Affective TLDR: When people aren’t thinking hard, marketers should use good vibes — attractive people, funny/emotional content, music, visuals, and repetition — to shape positive attitudes.

Affective Attitude Formation in Low-Effort Settings

• 3 main Influences: The Source, The Message, The Context

• The Source Uses:

  • Attractive people = more persuasive (peripheral cue)

    • Taps into visual appeal and automatic “good = good” thinking.

  • Likeable personalities = good vibes = good feelings toward the brand

    • Taps into emotional warmth and creates a “good vibes = good product” effect

  Marketers use both to influence consumers without needing them to think hard

• The Message Uses:

  • Attractive visuals (aesthetic appeal)

  • Pleasant music

  • Humor

  • Sex appeal

  • Emotionally involving stories (pull on heartstrings, inspire

  These elements just make you feel good, which can transfer to the product/brand.

• The Context:

  • Repetition = familiarity = liking (mere exposure effect again!) → enhances brand awareness

  • Program/editorial context = the setting the ad appears in (watching a funny show? you’ll be more receptive to a funny ad)

  The environment your ad is in can enhance how well it works.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion: Persuasion based on surface-level cues instead of the core message. Invokes automatic thinking

Peripheral Cues: Easily Processed Characteristics of a Message

Examples of Peripheral Cues:

• Attractive or likable spokesperson

• Music or humor in an ad

• Repetition

• Packaging/design

• Celebrity endorsements

Thin Slice Judgements: making quick opinions based on small bits of info / Evaluations made after very brief observations

Body Feedback: physical states influence attitudes (ex., smiling, nodding, posture = feel more positive)

Heuristics: Rules of Thumb that are used to make judgments

• ex, Frequency Heuristic: belief based on the number of supporting arguments or amount of repetition

Truth Effect: Consumers believe a statement simply because it has been repeated several times.

• ex) world war and carrots or repeated slogans like “#1 dentist recommended brand.”

Mood: 3 Categories of Affective Responses

• SEVA: Surgency, Elation, Vigor, and Activation → energetic positive emotions

• Deactivations feelings → calm, winding down emotions

• Social Affection → war,m tender,r and care → can create a positive association with the brand

Factors influencing affective attitudes:

• Communication sources include physical attractiveness, likability, and celebrity

• Message

  • Pleasant pictures

  • Music

  • Humor

  • Sex

  • Emotional content, such as transformational advertising and dramas

  • Context

Marketers can increase self-referencing by:

• Directly instructing consumers• Using the word you in an ad

• Asking rhetorical questions

• Using visuals of common consumer situations

Mystery ad: The brand is not identified until the end of the message

Other techniques include using avatars in websites and scratch-and-sniff print ads

In low effort processing situations, consumers form beliefs based on surface-level stuff like:

• Simple inferences = "It must be good if it’s expensive"

• Attributions = "If they’re giving a big discount, maybe it’s low quality"

• Heuristics = mental shortcuts like “famous = trustworthy” or “more = better”

How can Marketers influence this to their favor?

• Using credible sources

• Making messages relevant to the product category

• Including multiple or simple arguments

• Using repetition (but not to the point of annoyance)