Arousal: and its effect on attitude extremity towards a direct service

68 Pages·2016·1.28 MB·English

by  Helena Mallin

Bachelor Thesis

A R O U S A L

and its effect on attitude extremity towards
a direct service

Authors:
Flurina Baumann
Carmen Böhler
Simon Hellberg-Zarders

Modul: 2FE21E
Tutor: Viktor Magnusson
Examiner: Åsa Devine

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Abstract
The aim of this study is to explain the effect of arousal on consumer’s attitude towards
a direct service in terms of evaluation extremity. An important element within consumer
behavior is the attitude that consumers have towards products and services.
After the conceptual framework was developed through an extensive literature review
on arousal, attitude and services, a hypothesis was formulated stating that: Arousal has
an effect on consumer's attitude towards a direct service in terms of their evaluation
extremity.

An experiment was carried out within various lectures of a university in Sweden,
whereas the sampling used was a convenience sample of university students. The total
amount of respondents who participated in the experiment were 154, whereof 102 were
valid respondents. The experiment trigger used to influence their level of arousal was
caffeinated coffee, while the control trigger was decaffeinated coffee. The Fishbein
model was used to measure attitude translated into a questionnaire which was
administered at the experiment, while the three adjective scale was utilized to measure
the level of arousal for control. The collected data was imported into the statistics
program SPSS for analysis and discussion. Quality criteria and ethics standards were
adhered to during the entire research process.

At the conclusion of the research, the hypothesis was accepted. However, it should be
taken into consideration that the caffeine did not have the desired effect on the level of
arousal, and the study mainly used the control questions for arousal to find a
significance level. The study was deemed successful though, in that after calculating
positive pretests for validity, the results showed that the aroused participants had a
significantly more extreme attitude than the non-aroused participants. In that the
experiment and results are original, it allows for further related research. Finally, to
insure the validity of the results of this study, it is pertinent that the experiment’s results
are replicated by future studies.

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Table of contents

ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................................... 3
1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 AREA OF STUDY ...................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................. 5
1.3 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................................... 6
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................................... 7
2.1 AROUSAL............................................................................................................................................... 7
2.1.1 Relationship between arousal and other variables .................................................................... 7
2.1.2 Arousal Measurement ................................................................................................................ 8
2.2 ATTITUDE AND EVALUATION...................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Attitude extremity .................................................................................................................... 10
2.2.2 Service and attitude ................................................................................................................. 11
2.2.3 Attitude measurement ............................................................................................................. 11
2.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................................... 12
3 METHOD .................................................................................................................................................. 14
3.1 RESEARCH APPROACH ............................................................................................................................ 14
3.1.1 Measurement Approach .......................................................................................................... 16
3.1.2 Experiment ............................................................................................................................... 17
3.1.3 Practical application of the experiment ................................................................................... 18
3.2 OPERATIONALIZATION ............................................................................................................................ 18
3.2.1 Attitude Pre-Study .................................................................................................................... 18
3.2.2 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................................... 20
3.2.3 Operationalization of Questionnaire........................................................................................ 21
3.2.4 Sampling .................................................................................................................................. 23
3.3 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................... 24
3.3.1 Data coding .............................................................................................................................. 24
3.3.2 Descriptive statistics................................................................................................................. 25
3.3.3 Reliability test........................................................................................................................... 26
3.3.4 Hypothesis testing .................................................................................................................... 27
3.4 QUALITY CRITERIA ................................................................................................................................. 27
3.4.1 Content validity ........................................................................................................................ 27
3.4.2 Construct validity ..................................................................................................................... 28
3.4.3 Reliability.................................................................................................................................. 28
3.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ...................................................................................................................... 29
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................... 30
4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS AND RELIABILITY TESTING ....................................................................................... 31
4.2 HYPOTHESIS TESTING ............................................................................................................................. 34
4.2.1 Recoding scale .......................................................................................................................... 34
4.2.2 Attitude Variables .................................................................................................................... 36
4.2.3 Participant group and Attitude extremity ................................................................................ 36
4.2.4 Previous coffee consumption ................................................................................................... 37
4.2.5 Arousal Level ............................................................................................................................ 39
5 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 41
6 GENERAL DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................ 41
6.1 EXPERIMENT ........................................................................................................................................ 41
6.2 GENERALIZATION OF STUDY AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................. 42
7 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 43
8 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................ 50
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1 Introduction
The following chapter will introduce the area of study of the chosen topic, following a
problematization of the topic, which will lead to the purpose of the study.

1.1 Area of Study
Arousal is a physiological reaction caused by the cognitive response of person to a
specific situation (Schachter and Singer, 1962; Pfaff, 2006). It causes a human being to
have higher alertness to sensory stimuli, as well as stronger emotional reactions to
situations. It can influence the physical body and the performance of a human being
(Payne, et al., 2002; Corson and Verrier, 2007; Mahoney, et al., 2011). Arousal derives
from the field of psychology and is the basis of behavioral reactions, information
processing, motivation and emotions (Groeppel-Klein, 2005). The field of psychology is
strongly connected to consumer behaviour, because it is a field that can aid in the
understanding of consumer’s needs and desires (Solomon et al., 2013). According to
Solomon et al. (2013), consumer behavior is the study of how consumers choose, buy,
use or dispose products, services, ideas or experiences in order to fulfill their wants
and needs. A marketer has the goal to understand consumer behavior since one of the
fundamental aims of marketing is to satisfy and create value for consumers in regards
to products and services (Solomon et al., 2013). There is a growing awareness of the
general increase in consumption for individuals, which makes it increasingly important
for a company’s marketing strategy to predict and measure consumers behavior
(Solomon et al., 2013).

Marketing campaigns are mostly launched in an attempt to influence the behavior of
the consumer with the goal of causing them to perceive higher value for the product or
service being marketed compared to the competition (Solomon et al., 2013). Due to the
fact that consumers have different attitudes towards specific products and services, the
relationship between attitude and consumer behavior is widely researched (see e.g. Li
et al., 2012; Paul and Rana, 2012; Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2012; Yang and
Kim, 2012; Holmes, Byrne and Rowley, 2014; Parguel, Delécolle and Valette-Florence,
2016). Attitude is defined as a general evaluation of an object (Fishbein and Ajzen,
2010; Solomon et al., 2013) and an attitude influences consumer behaviour and
consequently consumers’ purchase intentions (Sutherland and Galloway, 1981).
Therefore, if a marketer can influence consumer’s attitude towards a product or
service, they can have a powerful and influential effect on consumer behaviour and
thereby their purchase intentions (Beck, 1979).

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1.2 Problem discussion
Attitude towards a product or service has been found to be an important element within
consumer behaviour and therefore subsequently has an effect on a company’s sales
(Sutherland and Galloway, 1981). As found by previous research, attitude can be
influenced by arousal (Fan, Chang and Wegener, 2015; Raju and Unnava, 2006). Fan,
Chang and Wegener (2015) claims in their research that different forms of arousal
mediates the attitude of a consumer towards specific types of products and services.
Furthermore, Raju and Unnava (2006) concluded in their research that arousal causes
individuals to resist change in attitude towards a product they were loyal to by
developing more effective counterarguments towards the competitor’s product. As
proved by Meng and Ratner (2015), arousal can lead to a more extreme evaluation of
an object (see also Storbeck and Clore, 2008). The research conducted by Paulhus
and Lim (1994) also concluded that the evaluative aspect of attitude becomes more
extreme when a person is aroused. The connection between arousal and how it can
cause attitude to become more extreme, or attitude extremity, seems then to be
significant and could therefore be important for marketers in that it would have an effect
on consumer behavior and thereby purchase intentions.

The current studies exploring the influence of arousal on attitude and attitude extremity,
generally focus on attitude towards a product (see e.g. Meng and Ratner, 2015; Fan,
Chang and Wegener, 2015), as opposed to a service. Although the fundamental
concept of selling something to a customer exists for both services and products, the
characteristics of the two are quite different (Kotler, et al., 2009). Services are often
produced and consumed simultaneously and are intangible, unlike products, which
exist in physical form and the customer is therefore buying something tangible (Fisk,
Grove and John, 2008, cited in Childers, Wiliams and Kremp, 2014). Furthermore,
services are a type of offering that is for sale but is made up of satisfactions, benefits,
or activities that do not result in the ownership of anything (Kotler, et al., 2009). Jin,
Hean and Lee (2012) state in their research that consumers are very likely to engage in
different processes while evaluating a service compared to a product. In particular, the
intangible nature of a service causes consumers to evaluate a service differently (Jin,
Hean and Lee, 2012). It is noteworthy that the service sector contains 67.5% (2011) of
the world's GDP, which makes it the most significant sector in the market
(Chakraborty, Gupta and Banerjee, 2015). It cannot be assumed that what is known
within the product sector is also valid for the service sector, and needs to therefore be
treated differently than a product in marketing studies. Due to the lack of research
within this area, coupled with the existence of a large share of service based
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companies within the economy, it is of importance to examine the effect that arousal
has on the attitude towards a service provider in regards to evaluation extremity.

Within the service sector, there exist both direct and indirect services. A direct service
entails that the majority of the offer needs to primarily consist of person(s) delivering
the service directly to a customer; examples being dentistry, university lectures, or hair
salons (Kotler, et al., 2009). Comparatively, indirect services entails a service platform
without the existence of human interaction in the service delivery process, such as
retail websites or digital ticket counters at airports (Kotler, et al., 2009). The few studies
that exist focus on the influence of arousal on attitude towards indirect services such as
certain messages within a service platform (see e.g. Hagtvedt, 2015; Potter and
Jinmyung, 2006) or attitude towards a website (see e.g. Richard and Chebat, 2016).
The existing studies do not investigate the relationship between arousal and attitude
extremity towards a direct service delivery. Hence, there is a lack of knowledge within
the field of arousal as to it (arousal) being an influencing factor contributing to attitude
extremity towards a direct service.

1.3 Purpose
To explain the effect of arousal on consumer's attitude towards a direct service in terms
of evaluation extremity.

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2 Theoretical framework
This chapter contains a written description of previous research on arousal, attitude,
services, their relationships, and a conceptual model. The chapter describes the
relationships among these variables and the existing theory underlying these
relationships.
2.1 Arousal
Arousal is known to be a fundamental influencer to human behaviour (Groeppel-Klein,
2005; Gröppel-Klein, Domke and Bartmann, 2006). Humans tend to over-emote in a
state of arousal (Ribble, 2014) and are not able to influence their arousal reaction
(Solomon, et al., 2013). Therefore, arousal can influence a person’s attitude whether
they are conscious of it or not (Solomon, et al., 2013). Arousal can also cause a
change the perception of neutral stimuli (Payne, et al., 2002; Corson and Verrier, 2007;
Mahoney, et al., 2011). Schachter and Singer (1962) were two of the first researchers
on arousal, and they conducted a highly celebrated study. They made an experiment
with an adrenaline injection to arouse the participants and had an actor who was
influencing them emotionally. They found out, that the aroused participants were more
emotional than the non-aroused participants. The next section of the theory will discuss
the research that has been conducted in regards to the relationship between arousal
and other variables.
2.1.1 Relationship between arousal and other variables
Dutton and Aron (1974) are also referred to as pioneers within the study of arousal
when it comes to it influencing the perception of consumers. They conducted a study
where they concluded that participants under conditions of high anxiety feel more
sexually attracted. That means the participants’ romantic feelings increased with the
arousing factor of feeling anxious.
Current studies have concluded that senses highly influence the level of arousal and
emotional state (see e.g. Groeppel-Klein, 2005; Küller, Mikellides and Janssens, 2009;
Lunardo and Roux, 2015). Groeppel-Klein (2005) and Lunardo and Roux (2015) reveal
that the visual presentation of a store and its environment have a huge impact on
consumers’ emotions and behavior. In addition, Küller, Mikellides and Janssens (2009)
underline that specific colors influences consumer’s emotions.
Further researchers reveal varied findings: There exists a link between the level of
arousal and the effectiveness of certain advertisements (Sundar and Kalyanarman,
2004; Malhotra, 2010; Puccinelli, Wilcox and Grewal, 2015). Sundar and Kalyanarman
(2004) underscore that the quicker the motion effects of an advertisement are, the
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more arousal the viewer will experience. The study of Malhotra (2010) indicates, that if
participants are exposed to competitive arousal and are triggered to win, it can have a
strong effect on the behavior of the individual. Moreover, Puccinelli, Wilcox and Grewal
(2015) findings provide evidence that people experiencing a deactivating emotion (e.g.,
sadness, relaxation, contentment) from the media context find highly energetic
commercials (e.g., with highly upbeat and enthusiastic actors) difficult to watch. The
deactivating emotion was the arousing variable in that research. In addition, results
show that if consumers experiencing a deactivating emotion (arousal), they will
respond as much as 50% more favorably to moderately energetic commercials
compared with highly energetic commercials (Puccinelli, Wilcox and Grewal, 2015).
Arousal also has an influence on memory. The memory for events tends to be greater if
the participant is in a state of arousal (Price, Lee and Read, 2009; Mahoney, et al.,
2011; Wang and Sun, 2015). In the study of Price, Lee and Read (2009) participants
had to imitate a crime which increased their level of arousal. The participants with a
high state of arousal were able to recall and repsignificantly able to recall and report
what they had done compared to participants with whom were in a low-state of arousal.
Mahoney, et al. (2011) point out that the performance of daily tasks such as face
recognition, studying, test-taking and learning new environments increased when
participants are aroused. The findings of Hulse, et al. (2007) shows that the memory for
details in an emotional video is more vivid than from a neutral control video.
2.1.2 Arousal Measurement
There have been several studies on arousal that make use of different stimuli to
manipulate the participants’ level of arousal. The following examples are studies that
have successfully induced participants into a state of arousal: specific videos (Hulse, et
al., 2007; Serfas, Büttner and Florack, 2014; Wang and Sun, 2015; Puccinelli, Wilcox
and Grewal, 2015) pictures, (Nashiro and Mather, 2011), colors (Küller, Mikellides and
Janssens, 2009), media content (Sundar and Kalyanaraman, 2004; Malhotra, 2010;
Lull and Bushman, 2015) and consumption of caffeine (Smith, Sutherland and
Christopher, 2005; James and Rogers, 2005; Schneider, et al., 2006; Hewlett and
Smith, 2007; Mahoney, et al., 2011; Barry, Clarke and Johnstone, 2011; Kuchinke and
Lux, 2012; Kamimori, et al., 2015; Clemente-Suarez and Robles-Pérez, 2015).

Several studies make use of different methods to measure the level of the arousal. One
of the most common but also one of the most expensive ways is to measure arousal
with electrodes as used by Groeppel-Klein (2005) (see also Barry, et al., 2005; Barry,
Clarke and Johnstone, 2011). Another approach which is often used to measure the
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state of arousal is a questionnaire which functions as a self-reported measurement of a
participant (e.g. Fan, Chang and Wegener, 2015; Hagtvedt, 2015; Meng and Ratner,
2015). Measurement with a self-report is advantageous in that it provides an insight
into the total organism because it includes the psychological as well as the
physiological aspects compared to a physiological measurement, which can only
capture the bodily reactions (Wegner and Gilbert, 2000 cited in Fan, Chang and
Wegner, 2015, p. 1429). There are different concepts which are frequently used to
measure arousal in the form of a self-report. The oldest concept is the Activation-
Deactivation checklist from Thayer (1970 and 1986 cited in Fan, Chang and Wegner,
2015, p. 1419) which measures energetic and tense arousal states as different arousal
dimensions. Russell, Weiss and Mendelsohn (1989) came up with the affect grid theory
which allowed their participants to rate their level of arousal and pleasantness in a
single item scale. Steyer, et al. (1997), cited in Pieschl and Fegers, (2016, p.34)
developed a multidimensional well-being questionnaire (Mehrdimensionaler
Befindlichkeitsfragebogen, MDBF) which includes two scales as indicators to measure
the arousal level of the participants as used by Pieschl and Fegers (2016). One of the
scales is alertness versus fatigue (AF), and the other is calm versus agitation (CA).
Other researchers used similar scales for the manipulation check of arousal in their
studies. The three adjective scales “relaxed versus stimulated”, “calm versus excited”
and “aroused versus not aroused” appears often and are successfully used by Di Muro
and Murray (2014), White, Fishbein and Rutsein (1981), Lunardo and Roux (2015) and
Kaltcheva and Weitz (2006).

2.2 Attitude and Evaluation
Social psychologists run into great difficulties when defining the characteristics of
attitude. An attitude is defined by Fishbein and Ajzen (2010, p. 76) as “a latent
disposition or tendency to respond with some degree of favorableness or
unfavorableness to a psychological object”. Attitudes are evaluative in nature, and
individuals can possess a negative, positive or neutral dimension (Fishbein and Ajzen,
2010). Allport (1935, p. 810) defines attitude as “a mental and neural state of
readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence
upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”.
Solomon, et al. (2013) emphasize that attitude is formed over longer periods of time.
For example, individuals can develop a negative attitude towards loud noises if they
hear it repeatedly over time. Furthermore, it is possible that two consumers have the
same attitude towards an object, but for different reasons (Solomon, et al., 2013).
Fishbein and Ajzen (2010) suppose that attitudes are influenced by moods and
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emotions. It could for example be, that an individual evaluates an airplane negative
because of his own fear of flying (Fishbein and Ajzen, 2010).

Several studies have been done in relation to attitude and consumer behavior (see e.g.
Sutherland and Galloway, 1981; Lu and Su, 2009; Li, et al., 2012; Paul and Rana,
2012; Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2012; Yang and Kim, 2012; Holmes, Byrne and
Rowley, 2014; Parguel, Delécolle and Valette-Florence, 2016). A positive attitude
influences consumer behavior and therefore their purchase intentions (Sutherland and
Galloway, 1981). It can be concluded that a positive attitude when evaluating a product
or service, can lead to a purchase or consumption of a product or service (Sutherland
and Galloway, 1981). Another study by Holmes, Byrne and Rowley (2014) reported
that they had different kinds of attitudes toward the usage of the mobile phone for
shopping. Participants claim that they see the mobile phone as helpful and simple to
use for shopping reasons. On the other hand, the attitude towards trust, fun,
excitement, clarity and friendliness is negative when it comes to mobile shopping
(Holmes, Byrne and Rowley, 2014). Also, the attitude towards an environmental
product can have an effect on a consumer’s purchase intention. For example,
Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñe (2012) disclose that an environmentally friendly product
has a big influence on the consumer’s purchase intentions, because it is a way for
them to express their sustainability attitudes. Paul and Rana (2012) reveal that a
consumer’s attitude towards buying organic food is dependent on demographic factors.
If the population is healthy and educated, it positively influences the consumer's
attitude towards buying organic food (Paul and Rana, 2012). Furthermore, price can be
a factor for evaluating a brand differently (Parguel, Delécolle and Valette-Florence,
2016). Results indicate that price represents what a brand stands for. A high price may
have a positive influence on the attitude towards a luxury brand, because it represents
uniqueness and conspicuousness (Parguel, Delécolle and Valette-Florence, 2016).

2.2.1 Attitude extremity
The intensity of an attitude varies according to Krosnick and Smith (1994); some
attitudes form strong emotional responses towards an object, whereas others create
little or no emotional reaction. An attitude can become more extreme which means that
the attitude of a person towards an attitude object can become more extremely positive
or more extremely negative (Krosnick and Smith, 1994). Attitude extremity is
operationalized by Krosnick and Smith (1994) as the extent to which a person’s attitude
deviates from a midpoint of a scale ranging from highly favorable to highly unfavorable.
The further the respondents rating is from the neutral point, the more extreme the
person’s attitude is towards the attitude object (Krosnick and Smith, 1994).
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