Salience Transfer and Its Effects on Attributional Judgment in Cause-Related Marketing

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session and Reception
  In Interactive Paper Session: Mass Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The present study serves as an empirical verification of the cognitive process model of agenda setting recently developed by the author, and for the most part supported the model. More specifically, the research findings support the process of salience transfer proposed in the cognitive process model that priming an attribute to make it salient in the media message is likely to increase the importance of that attribute in the perceiver’s mind and the ease of the attribute retrieval from the perceiver’s short-term memory. The effects of salience transfer on consumer attributional judgment of CRM motivation through importance increase of the attribute were also found. That is, the more important the attribute is, the more likely the subsequent ambiguous action will be attributed in relation to that attribute, which in turn impact audience attitude toward the actor.

Author

• Jusheng Yu, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville