IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/v48y2021i1p123-146..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How the Eyes Connect to the Heart: The Influence of Eye Gaze Direction on Advertising Effectiveness

Author

Listed:
  • Rita Ngoc To
  • Vanessa M Patrick
  • Margaret C Campbell
  • JoAndrea Hoegg

Abstract

A model’s eyes are a powerful and ubiquitous visual feature in virtually any advertisement depicting a person. But does where the ad model’s eyes look matter? Integrating insights from social psychology and performance and visual art theory, we demonstrate that when the ad model’s gaze is averted (looking away from the viewer), the viewer is more readily transported into the ad narrative and responds more favorably to the ad than when the ad model’s gaze is direct (looking directly at the viewer). Five multi-method experiments (field and lab studies) illustrate that averted gaze (direct gaze) enhances narrative transportation (spokesperson credibility) to boost the effectiveness of emotional (informative) ads. Study 1 is a Facebook field study that demonstrates the effect of averted (vs. direct) gaze direction on advertising effectiveness using a real brand. Studies 2a and 2b implicate enhanced narrative transportation as the underlying process mechanism by measuring (study 2a) and manipulating (study 2b) narrative transportation. Studies 3a and 3b examine ad contexts in which direct gaze can enhance ad effectiveness: when the ad has informational (vs. emotional) appeal (study 3a), and when the viewer prefers not to identify with the negative emotional content of the ad (study 3b).

Suggested Citation

  • Rita Ngoc To & Vanessa M Patrick & Margaret C Campbell & JoAndrea Hoegg, 2021. "How the Eyes Connect to the Heart: The Influence of Eye Gaze Direction on Advertising Effectiveness," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 48(1), pages 123-146.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:48:y:2021:i:1:p:123-146.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucaa063
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gong, Heming & Bian, Xuemei & Zheng, Chundong, 2024. "Leveraging celebrities with inconsistent attractiveness and credibility for charitable endorsement: A cue diagnosticity perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Li, Yaoqi & Liu, Biqiang & Xie, Lishan, 2022. "Celebrity endorsement in international destination marketing: Evidence from eye-tracking techniques and laboratory experiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 553-566.
    3. Istiak Ahmad & Fahad Alqurashi & Ehab Abozinadah & Rashid Mehmood, 2022. "Deep Journalism and DeepJournal V1.0: A Data-Driven Deep Learning Approach to Discover Parameters for Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-72, May.
    4. Zhang, Jin & Xu, Xiaobing & Keh, Hean Tat, 2022. "I implement, they deliberate: The matching effects of point of view and mindset on consumer attitudes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 397-410.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:48:y:2021:i:1:p:123-146.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.