Effects of Television Violence on Memory for Violent and Nonviolent Advertising

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of television violence on memory for advertising, taking into account the possible role of vicwcr hostility arousal in this context. Experimental participants were exposed to advertising placed within a violent or a nonviolent film clip.One advertisement had 2 versions-violent and nonviolent-and was presented with 2 other nonviolent filler advertisements. Participants completed a mood questionnaire before and after being exposed to the television material, tested for memory for the embedded advertising and asked to rate the film clips and the advertisements using a set of evaluative scales. The nonviolent version of the target advertisement was less well remembered when placed in the violent film than in the nonviolent film, supporting Bushman and Bonacci (2002). In contrast, the violent version of the target advertisement was remembered much better than the nonviolent version when placed in the violent film scqucncc. Participants' hostility scores were higher only after watching the violent film, and associated with an impairment in the memory of the nonviolent advertisements, while enhancing the memory of the violent advertisement, thus providing some support for Bushman's (1 998a) hostile-thought hypothesis.

The Effects of a Health-Based Context on Memory for Advertisements

“…Our results found no significant Programme × Advert interaction, which rejects both the cognitive priming theory, as demonstrated by (Furnham et al, 2002a;Gunter et al, 2005;Kamins et al, 1991) the cognitive interference theory (Furnham et al, 1998;Furnham et al, 2002b;Gunter et al, 2002), and contrast effects (Goodstein, 1993;Hunt, 1995). Although results did not turn out significant, there was an advantage for memory of health advertisements when they were embedded within a health programme, in comparison to if they were embedded within a non-health programme.…”

“…In order to stimulate memory for advertisements the advert-programme congruity may have to be narrowed down to a specific product type, or alternatively the concept of programme involvement may interfere with memory for ads embedded within the genres of violence, sex, humour or cartoons (Gunter et al, 2005;Furnham et al, 1998;Furnham & Mori, 2003;Parker & Furnham, 2007).…”

“…Hence, it may be a possibility that unhealthy food advertising is more susceptible to priming effects than healthy food advertising, in which the latter will be less likely to "stick" in memory. As has been previously stated, context effects have before shown to have a positive impact on memory for advertisements (Furnham et al, 2002a;Gunter et al, 2005). However, never has the context of health been explored before within this line of research.…”

“…This is supported by the cognitive priming theory (Sanbonmatsu & Fazio, 1991). Gunter, Furnham and Pappa (2005) found that memory for violent adverts were enhanced when embedded within a violent film, in comparison to non-violent adverts. The contents within the programme will work as a prime for any similar relations displayed in the proceeding advertisement.…”

When Items Become Victims: Brand Memory in Violent and Nonviolent Games

“…The detrimental effect of TV violence on brand memory has been attributed to violence drawing visual attention away from the product information to the program itself, thus preventing brand memory traces from being established (i.e., attentiongrabbing effect; Bushman & Bonacci, 2002;Gunter et al, 2005). This thesis is also supported by recent models on the effects of emotional arousal on memory binding (Mather, 2007).…”