I was searching the internet to find a subject that I felt presented an
unethical situation for a class requirement. It could be in any form of
media including areas in writing, painting, or live video. I discovered a
report done on 9/5/2013 by Matt Hoverton from CNN introducing a new
‘concept’. A company in Waco, Texas called Hornet Signs specializes in
signs and marketing and currently design and apply vehicle wrap-around
advertising. On a whim, the owner of the company decided to have the
artist within the company design different types of images to stimulate
reaction and possibly increase sales. The image that was highlighted
during the news clip was an actual photograph taken of a female coworker,
placed in the cargo section of a pickup truck. She was unidentifiable
because her hair obscured her face, however she was lying down in a fetal
position and her hands and feet were bound with rope. A photograph was
taken of her, processed and transferred onto a plastic vehicle wrap and mounted
to the closed tailgate of a pickup truck. This photograph was so
convincing that when I continued to watch the video the reporter dropped the
tailgate of the truck showing that it was simply an image, not a real person
contained in the back of a truck. Multiple feelings began to flood my mind. I
strongly disagreed with the illustration, even though I did view it as a form
of art. The end of the video questioned the value of such a design and if it
was detrimental. The owner of the company stated that sales had
markedly increased since displaying the new illustrations (CNN Video).
The
viewing of the video caused me to reflect upon my own personal reaction to the
vehicle design. I remembered seeing multiple vehicle wraps in the past
advertising a business done in large, colorful, detailed graphics to as simple
as a small mount on the driver’s door. Whether the design covered large
areas of the vehicle or just a small side of the vehicle, the message I saw was
intense and certainly got my attention. I began wondering what other
people may think about this bound image. Would gender, age, or area of
study effect their reaction? Would they experience an emotion and if so,
would that emotion be positive or negative and to what intensity? Upon
review of the literature there are several articles that attempt to measure
some variables.
Fisher, R., & Dub, L. (2005). . Journal
of Consumer Research, 31(4), 850-858.Retrieved from http://econpapers.repec.org/article/ucpjconrs/v_3a31_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a850-858.htm
The main idea of this research article was gender
similarities and emotional experience. After review of current literature,
emotional experiences between the genders revealed mixed results. The authors
set out to determine if gender makes a difference in responses to advertising. In
the past, women were self-reported as being more emotional than men and found
that if men were emotional, they generally expressed anger.
In
this research article, the hypothesis was “Do males and females react
differently to emotional advertising?” Before the research was conducted there
were a group of 32 judges that viewed 15 ads and selected 4 that in their
opinion solicited a variety of emotions. The judges were undergraduate business
students that did not participate in the research study. The ads were
associated with emotional descriptors which included high and low, and positive
and negative responses.
There
were a total of 160 participants; 40 male and female pairs that knew each
other. Participants were recruited through signs located throughout the campus
of a major Northeastern university. Recruitment was accomplished by posting
signs to “attract” same-gender and mixed-gender pairs to participate. The
participants were randomly assigned to view the ads as pairs or individuals.
After viewing each ad, participants answered a questionnaire using items from
the established Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance 8 Point Scale asking questions
that ranged from unhappy to contented. This self-reported scale was taken
before the viewing of the ads to determine where the participants were
emotionally before viewing the ads. The participants were randomly placed into
viewing areas in couples, or alone to measure gender response and if social
context had anything to do with their reaction. Immediately after viewing
each ad, the researchers answered a six point Attitude Scale ranging from “bad”
to “loved it” to measure their self-reported attitude, before viewing the next
ad. The outcome of the research raised the possibility that females and
males had the same emotional responses and it did not matter whether they sat
with the same gender or with the opposite gender or by themselves.
The
research seemed to be well thought out and the research process did attempt to
prevent many pitfalls. The students were asked to volunteer to participate and
were randomly arranged however, there was no indication if their confidentiality
was protected. The selection of participants was done by questionable
means. The researchers shared that signs were posted to “attract”
people to participate. It was not disclosed by the researchers what
the signs actually said. They advertised for same-gender and mixed-gender
couples, but did not define what this meant. The selection of participants was
limited because they could only participate if they had an associate that was
willing to participate as well.
The
site of the study was “a Northeastern University” which makes the reader
wonders why they did not disclose the site. The researchers did not share if
confidentiality was maintained and how they kept responses properly assigned
for later tabulation. The group that determined which ads would fall into which
category were undergraduate business students. They did not participate in
the study, but the group did all belong to a school of business and the
validity of their opinions about emotional responses to the ads is
questionable, as their field of study could have skewed their opinions. The
research was vague about actual participants, and did not indicate their ages
(assumed to be college age) or majors which could have had an impact on their
emotional impressions of the ads. The use of the established scales was a
good strategy as well as being sure that each participant viewed the ads and
then immediately completed the emotional response scale before moving on to
view the next ad. Having couples participate that already had knowledge of the
other should have helped correlate if their emotions were affected when they
were with someone else, but that cannot truly be assured.
Barrett, L. F., Robin, L., Pietromonaco, P. R.,
& Eyssell, K. M. (1998). Are
women the "more emotional sex?" Evidence from emotional experiences
in social context. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 555-578.
This research study had 104 students sampled; 56
students from the University of Massachusetts and 48 students from Pennsylvania
State University. Only 70 students chose to participate; 28 males and 42
females. They were encouraged to participate by receiving course credit and
being entered into a lottery drawing for 50 dollars.
The
study wanted to know “whether sex differences and emotion are related to the
social context and address differences between global, retrospective, online,
momentary, and self-descriptions of emotional experience and expression.” The
researchers were attempting to find out if women are more emotional than men.
Participants
were given a code number and were not identified by name to maintain
confidentiality. Before entering the room the participants had to rate their
mood based on a self-reported Likert Scale which ranged from "do not like
at all” to “strongly agree.” The participants were brought into a laboratory
setting three different times. The first time the participants were encouraged
to keep records of their social interactions with other people for a week. When
they came in for the second visit, the participants returned the completed
record. When the participants came in the third time, the experimenter
interviewed the participants to make sure they followed the directions.
The
participants completed another self-reported Likert Scale where they did a
self-analysis of their social interaction that they logged for the week
describing the quality and the emotion of the interaction and rated their
intimacy with the person they interacted with.
The
results of the study provides some evidence that culturally, women are seen as
more emotional than men but the results of this study indicated that neither
men nor women are any more emotional than the other.
The
research did attempt to protect the confidentiality of the participants which
is good; how participants were recruited was not indicated. The number females
drastically outnumbered the male participants. This may skew the results,
especially considering the fact that the researchers were attempting to
determine if females react emotionally more than males. Offering
course credit and a chance at lottery money would encourage students to
participate, however it could affect the outcome of the study by having
participants that were motivated due to outside influences rather than desire
for research.
Dalebroux, A., Goldstein, T., & Winner, E.
(2008). Short-term mood repair through art-making: Positive emotion is more effective
than venting, 1-8. Retrieved from https://www2.bc.edu/~winner/pdf/shorttermmoodrepair.pdf
The hypothesis for this study was “can short-term
moods be repaired through making art? “There were 75 participants; 53 female
and 22 male ages 18-22, which were undergraduates from a Psychology Department,
from the same college, and participated at random. The participants were
randomly placed in 3 groups and viewed a film, “Band of Brothers Concentration
Camp.” This was a film that highlighted concentration camps during WWII. Participants
were given a self-report to gauge their mood after viewing the movie. This
study implemented a chi square analysis and an Affect Grid Scale which has been
shown to be valuable and reliable by repeated and consistent results use in
previous research studies.
The
participants were split into three groups after viewing the film; 25
participants in each group. 25 participants were placed in a group called
venting and were asked to draw art scenes that depicted their current mood, 25
participants were placed in a group called fantasizing and were asked to draw
pictures depicting something that made them feel “happy”, and the control group
consisted of 25 participants that were placed in a group called distracted and
were asked to scan sheets of specific symbols.
Moods
were assessed using the Affect Grid Scale after each activity and the
preliminary evidence suggests that the participants who drew happy pictures
felt more positive and had rid themselves of negative feelings. Those who drew
negative pictures maintained a negative mood and the control group had no change
in mood.
The
conclusion of the study provided some evidence that when people vent by
utilizing art such as drawing, they do not rid themselves of their own negative
emotions, however when people who have a negative mood are asked to draw a
happy picture, it requires them to fantasize. The brain function of
fantasizing is what makes the person feel better.
One
concern about this study is that the number of females was more than two times
the number of males and all undergraduate students from the same field of
study, psychology. This factor may not affect the research, but is
to be considered. Random selection of participates was done, but how
was not indicated and there was no indication that their confidentiality was protected
in any way. There was no pre-viewing assessment evaluating the
participant’s moods so it is difficult to measure how much the film actually
affected them.
Timmor, Y. and Katz-Navon, T. (2008), Being the same and
different: A model explaining new product adoption. Journal of Consumer
Behavior, 7: 249–262. doi: 10.1002/cb.249
The hypothesis for this study was what affects
customers to purchase new products?” The study was conducted by the Arison
School of Business at a university in Herzliya, Israel. There were 158
undergraduate students that participated in the research study. A brain
storming event occurred among the researchers and three students who did not
participate in the study to identify the new products to be researched in the
study. A pilot study was conducted among 50 students before the 158 students
were polled. The researchers requested that each participant answer a
questionnaire that indicated their reaction to new products: a cell phone with
camera, memory stick, and a new fashion item. The fashion item was not
specified by the researchers, however each participant had to identify a new
fashion item of their choice and rate the item.
The
participants were asked to respond to Brewer’s self-reported 5 point Likert
scale, ranging from “do not agree” to “agree”, measuring need for assimilation
and need for distinctiveness. The researchers studied correlation coefficients
and the variables included assimilation vs. distinctiveness (participants want
what others have vs. wants to be different). Assimilation means “purchasing to
belong to a larger group as a whole.” Distinctiveness means “desiring to be
different.” The study did raise the possibility that when consumers are getting
ready to buy a new product, the higher the number of perceived consumers that
own the product, the higher the correlation of the consumer purchasing the
product. The researchers did note that marketers advertise and promote products
by giving the impression that everyone has or will need the product. This
action by marketers skewed results of the study because participants had
already been exposed to the promotion of the product, even though the items were
new on the market.
The
researchers did not indicate what school of study the participants were from,
what ages (assumed 18-25 years), how they were selected, what sex they were, or
if their confidentiality was protected. Any of these variables could affect the
outcome of the research. The reader questions why the researchers
had each participant think of and react to a new fashion item. Possibly
more consistent results would have occurred if the researchers had selected a
fashion item for the participants to assess.
Another variable that was
not explored was if the participants had the financial ability to purchase the
products. Being college students could affect their financial purchasing
power and this variable could have affected their reaction to the product
knowing that they were unable to actually purchase it. The participants
may actually want the new products, but do they really need the product. This
could have entered into their reaction towards the products.
There
is an indication in all four research studies of further research needing to be
done. Fisher in 2005 examined if there are gender differences in responses
to emotional advertising. Barrett in 1998 examined women versus men
emotional experiences within a social context. Dalebroux in 2008 examined
the effect of positive art versus negative art on human emotions. Timmer
in 2008 examined what factors affect the success of the marketing of a new
product.
Each
research article was selected due to the concepts related to my hypothesis of
“do people react positively or negatively to pick-up truck tailgate wrap-around
illustrations?” Even though there is research in the literature that examines
art, gender, and human emotions, there is no research related to the way
wrap-around illustrations on vehicles are perceived and in turn, affect
individuals. If I were to conduct my own study, I would have 100 randomly
selected participants including 50 males and 50 females which would include 25
Caucasian males, 25 Caucasian females, 25 non-Caucasian males and 25
non-Caucasian females. Within the study is a variety of age groups
from 11 years of age and older, from a variety of undergraduate programs,
classes, and faculty and students from a local junior/senior high school.
For
my research I would print colored still shots from the CNN video of the bound
woman illustration. One still shot would be of the illustration on the pick-up
tailgate when it is up. The second still shot would be of the illustration on
the pick-up tailgate when it is down. I would allow participants to view the
first still shot while the second still shot was hidden. Afterwards,
they would view the second still shot. The measuring tool of this study would
be a self-reported, five-question, five-point Likert scale questionnaire,
gathering demographic information and the participants’ emotions and their
degree of emotion after viewing the still shots. The researcher feels that
studying this hypothesis will be beneficial to a career in human services
management. Understanding gender and potential ethical dilemmas will
enhance the researchers understanding of emotional reactions and the management
of those emotions.
Works Cited
Barrett, L. F., Robin, L., Pietromonaco, P. R.,
& Eyssell, K. M. (1998). Are women
the "more emotional sex?" Evidence from emotional experiences in
social context. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 555-578.
CNN Video (2013, September 7). Would this
Make you Call the Cops? Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/09/07/dnt-texas-truck-decals.kwtx.html
Dalebroux, A., Goldstein, T., & Winner, E.
(2008). Short-term mood repair through art-making: Positive emotion is more
effective than venting, 1-8. Retrieved from
https://www2.bc.edu/~winner/pdf/shorttermmoodrepair.pdf
Fisher, R., & Dub, L. (2005). . Journal
of Consumer Research, 31(4), 850-858.Retrieved from http://econpapers.repec.org/article/ucpjconrs/v_3a31_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a850-858.htm
Timmor, Y. and Katz-Navon, T. (2008), Being the
same and different: A model explaining new product adoption. Journal of
Consumer Behavior, 7: 249–262. doi: 10.1002/cb.249
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