The indirect effects of advertisements designed to change product attribute beliefs

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the dynamics of attitude change by examining indirect effects of an ad designed to change a belief. Results showed that an ad had indirect effects on unmentioned beliefs, which were a function of (1) the manner in which beliefs are organized internally in ad recipients' cognitive structure and (2) retrieval cues provided externally in the ad. Also, the ad had indirect effects on evaluations ( a i ) of the intended attribute; these effects were observed especially when the belief was directly attacked by the ad and the ad recipients' beliefs were held with high confidence.