Consumer reactions to emotional appeals and rhetorical devices in preventive health promotions

This dissertation draws on two theoretical streams of research: appraisal theory of emotion and advertising rhetoric. Understanding the relationship between rhetorical works and cognitive appraisal of emotions as well as the effect this relationship has on consumer coping intentions is of great relevance in marketing. A new model, the Emotional Appraisal and Reactions Model (EARM) is proposed and is thereafter empirically tested. The author presents several hypotheses that are tested through a three by three (hope vs. fear vs. neutral appeals by trope vs. scheme vs. non-figurative headlines) factorial experimental design using a public service advertisement campaign promoting the services provided by the website for the new USDA food pyramid. MANOVA and ANOVA results support that the EARM partly subsumes earlier appraisal models presented in the psychology and marketing literature.