Eye-tracking evidence that happy faces impair verbal message comprehension: the case of health warnings in direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical television commercials

Abstract

Risk warning or disclosure information in advertising is only effective in correcting consumers’ judgments if enough cognitive capacity is available to process that information. Hence, comprehension of verbal warnings in TV commercials may suffer if accompanied by positive visual elements. This research addresses this concern about cross-modality interference in the context of direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical commercials in the United States by experimentally testing whether positive facial expressions reduce consumers’ understanding of the mandated health warning. A content analysis of a sample of DTC commercials reveals that positive facial expressions are more prevalent during the verbal warning act of the commercials than during the other acts. An eye-tracking experiment conducted with specially produced DTC commercials, which vary the valence of characters’ facial expressions during the health warning, provides evidence that happy faces reduce objective comprehension of the warning.

Look, Puppies! A Visual Content Analysis of Required Risk Statements Embedded in Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising

“…However, these researchers also found that the presence of distraction did not reduce overall consumer perceptions of risk. In a second eye-tracking study of DTCA, Russell et al (2017) reported that message comprehension was impaired by an increased frequency of positive facial expressions during the major statement.…”

“…Of concern is the possibility that the positive affect arising from visual imagery may reduce risk perceptions (Finucane et al 2000; Slovic et al 2007). Prior research using small samples of DTCA found that the presence of positive imagery during the major statement can also inhibit message comprehension (Russell et al 2017). Pairing incongruent audio and visual information has been characterized as a form of distraction (Penney 1989).…”

Animation and Consumer Perceptions of DTC Pharmaceutical Advertisement

“…Next, a recognition memory test was adapted, as utilized in a study of verbal message comprehension in DTC prescription drug commercials (Russell et al ) as well as a study on the impact of efficacy information on the recollection of benefits and risks for a DTC cholesterol drug commercial (O'Donoghue et al ). In this task, participants are presented with a list of 20 risks (or benefits, depending on the condition to which they were exposed) from the original list created by the focus group, and asked to select the four items they heard within the viewed clip.…”

“…Consumer advocates worry that as health literacy decreases, consumers will become more reliant on other cognitive heuristics, such as animation, resulting in less well‐informed health‐related decision making and suboptimal medical outcomes. For example, in a study of health warnings within DTC prescription drug advertisements, eye‐tracking data suggest interference between positive visual elements and risk warning comprehension (Russell et al ). In 2016, the FDA announced its interest in better understanding the impact of visual effects such as superimposed text and animated characters on consumer perception of drug advertisements, noting concern that animation “may interfere with message communication” (McCaffry ).…”

Neuroimaging Techniques in Advertising Research: Main Applications, Development, and Brain Regions and Processes

“…That has grabbed immense attention from both academia and industrial field, and collaboration between marketers, neuroscientists, and psychologists in order to better understand what drives consumer behavior and neural processing of advertising in the human brain [60]. For example, it has divided neuroimaging tools that provide evidence on neural correlates of advertising and consumers' behavior into two categories, as follows: (1) recording electrical activity signals such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), and (2) recording metabolic activity signals such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) [13,[61][62][63][64][65].…”