When Do Opposing Forces Increase Willingness to Buy? Regulatory Motivational Focus and Ad Messages

The regulatory focus theory suggests that consumers rely on their motivational focus (prevention vs. promotion) for their evaluations and decisions. Usually consumers prefer products that match their personal motivational focus. Previous studies show that this pattern preferably occurs when we are not motivated to process information. However, this study suggests that situations that require greater cognitive effort, in which the consumer needs more information to decide because of the difficulty of the task, messages that have an opposing motivational regulatory focus will be more persuasive. When consumers have not been previously exposed to difficult tasks which require more cognitive effort, their willingness to buy products presented in ways that match their regulatory fit will increase. Experiment 1 (n=257) showed evidence that task difficulty has a moderating role in ad-message persuasiveness. Experiment 2 (n=144) presents the same moderating effect of task difficulty on the regulatory fit (vs unfit) phenomenon for willingness to buy. Therefore, not all information compatible with consumer motivational focus is well evaluated. When greater cognitive effort is required, unfit messages may be more persuasive.