Study Purpose Essays Example

Article review: Humorous Threat Persuasion in Advertising: The Effects of Humor, Threat Intensity, and Issue Involvement

The study by Yoon and Tinkham (2013) analyses effects of using humor to present threatening information in advertisements, a topic which has seldom been researched comprehensively. Based on the concepts of the dual processing model, the authors proposed that reaction to humor used in threat persuasion depends on the extent to which an individual is involved in a given issue. This hypothesis was tested by conducting two experiments. Within the framework of Study 1, varied levels of humor used in threat persuasion advertising were applied, and the more individuals were involved in the issue, the less positive they were towards the humor advertisements, and vice-versa. Study 2 varied threat intensities in addition to humor, and its results have shown that the effectiveness of different combinations of humor and threat intensities were strongly influenced by issue involvement of individuals.

Literature

In order to ensure the credibility and thoroughness of their research, the authors studied numerous books and scholarly articles written by respected professionals in psychology, communication studies, and marketing. To underline importance, timeliness and uniqueness of their work, Yoon and Tinkham (2013) reviewed the most extensive researches associated with humorous threat persuasion, including the 2010 study conducted by Brown, Bhadury, and Pope, and Voss’s 2009 study. The authors base their research on solid theoretical ground, including Rogers’ protection motivation theory; Tanner, Hunt, and Eppright’s ordered motivation model; Witte’s extended parallel process model; Eagly and Chaiken’s heuristic systematic model. To ensure that the outcomes of their research are credible and appropriate, the authors studied relevant public service advertisements researches by Lee, Yun, and Lee; Hale, Lemieux, and Mongeau; Keller and Block; and Passyn and Sujan.
Therefore, the background literature reviewed was completely relevant to the study’s purpose, from the viewpoint of theory, analytical framework, experiments, and data.

References

Yoon, H. J., & Tinkham, S. F. (2013) Humorous Threat Persuasion in Advertising: The Effects of Humor, Threat Intensity, and Issue Involvement. Journal of Advertising, 42(1), 30-41.