Examining the Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions of Individualism Within the United States and Denmark: How Culture Affects Values, Moral Orientations and Advertising Persuasion

Abstract

The consequences of these differences for persuasion and cognitive processing of ads appealing to culture-relevant or -irrelevant values were tested through individuals' evaluations of a pair of ads for cancer research (prosocial) or for a lamp (commercial). It was expected that the culturally-relevant appeal would be more persuasive and would be processed more systematically than the culturally-irrelevant appeal. Findings revealed that, although processing expectations were supported, predictions for higher evaluations of culturally-relevant ads were not.