Up-Down versus Left-Right: The Effect of Writing Direction Change in East Asia on Consumers’ Perceptions and Advertising

Abstract

Language plays an important role in consumers' perceptions and behavior. East Asian languages, such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, are unique in that they can be written horizontally and vertically. In this research, we take China as a case example and explore the downstream consequences of writing direction on Chinese consumers' time-related perceptions and brand/product evaluations. Using three studies, we find that a description presenting context from the past is perceived as having a longer past temporal distance when written in a vertical (versus horizontal) orientation. In advertising, writing direction can serve as an effective cue to invoke Chinese consumers' specific time-related perceptions of brands/products. A brand/product is perceived to be more traditional and antique (versus modern and contemporary) when its description is written vertically (versus horizontally). In addition, we demonstrate that an advertisement presented in a vertical (horizontal) direction results in enhanced persuasiveness and more favorable brand/product attitudes when matched with a traditional (modern) brand/product. Our findings enrich theories and implications of language studies in different cultures and elucidate the effects of writing direction in Asian advertising.