Impact of Power on Consumers’ Price Perceptions

Presence of models influences consumers’ attitudes. For example, the use of highly attractive models may lead to better advertising effectiveness, or consumers expect better consumption experiences when a model is consuming food compared to when there is no model in the advertisement. However, little attention has been given to the effect of postures on consumers’ information processing. Previous literature has shown that people may perceive power from certain types of body postures. This work examines how perceived power from a posture of a model in an advertisement affects consumers’ price recall ability. The findings show that when a model in an advertisement displays high-power pose, consumers are more likely to avert their gaze from the face of the model and attend more to the bottom of the advertisement. Therefore, they are more likely to engage in processing of price information of bottom items (i.e., shoes, pants, etc.) compared to those of top (i.e., shirts, jackets, etc.). In contrast, when a model displays low-power pose, consumers are more likely to direct their gazes to the face of the model and attend more to the top. Consequently, they are more likely to engage in processing of price information of the top items. This research further suggests people avoid looking directly at the model’s face because powerful postures make people anxious and adopt appeasement gestures.

Many thanks to Jeonggyu’s dissertation committee: • Committee Chair – Rajneesh Suri – Professor – Drexel University • Committee Member: Daniel Korschun – Associate Professor – Drexel University • Committee Member: YanLiu Huang – Associate Professor- Drexel University • Committee Member: Chen Wang - Assistant Professor – Drexel University • Committee Member: Joseph Hancock - Professor – Drexel University