| The distinction between cognitive and affective stimuli has been repeatedly made in the marketing literature (see e.g., Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer 1999), with affect considered as a valenced feeling state (Cohen and Areni 1991). Considerable effort has been placed on the examination of how cognitive information is integrated, however research regarding affect integration is still in its infancy. Prior affect integration research (e.g., Fredrickson and Kahneman 1993) has primarily focused on the mechanism by which individuals combine sequentially presented affective stimuli of common valence (i.e., the integration of positively valenced stimuli or negatively valenced stimuli, but not both in the same affective experience). This stream of research provides support for a non-compensatory mechanism, where the peak affect experienced and the affect at the end have a disproportionate contribution to the overall affect experienced. Previous research has not examined the affect integration mechanism when the affective stimuli are presented simultaneously. With the exception of few studies, prior research has also neglected the integration of oppositely valenced affective stimuli.; Five experiments have been conducted to examine how individuals integrate both commonly and oppositely valenced affective stimuli when stimuli are simultaneously presented. This is investigated in a context of print advertising which utilizes affect generating images. Findings from Experiment 1 suggest that when affective stimuli are of the same valence, a peak mechanism explains overall response. However, results from Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 indicate that when stimuli with different valences of the same intensity or differing intensity are simultaneously presented, a compensatory mechanism is observed. The findings from Experiment 4 demonstrate that, within a simultaneous presentation context, when combining only positive or only negative stimuli of the same intensity, an increase in the frequency (number) of stimuli does not increase overall positiveness or negativeness. The results from Experiment 5 indicate that, within a simultaneous presentation context, when combining both positive and negative stimuli of the same intensity, an increase in the frequency of positive (negative) stimuli increases overall positiveness (negativeness). The results from these experiments provide managerial implications for advertisers and marketers. Future research avenues in affect integration are also explored. |
