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The current study examined the emotional consequences involved in processing different levels of information complexity in a banner ad as well as the role of construal level [15] in the process. The entropy measure of information theory was used as a metric of complexity. This measure showed high correlation with subjective ratings of complexity. Complexity manipulation adopting this measure found reliable effects on subjective complexity across two experiments. On the other hand, construal level, manipulated or measured, interacted with complexity in determining banner preference. Participants preferred medium complexity banners over low or high complexity ones when the construal level was low. Complexity did not affect banner preference when the construal level was high (Experiments 1 and 2). The inverted U-shaped function of complexity on preference was interpreted in terms of the composite effect of perceptual and conceptual fluency that varied in opposite directions as complexity increased (Experiment 3). Research and practical implications of these findings were also discussed.

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