The Division of Labor between Conditional and Motiva-tional Promotional Language in Inducing Future-orient-ed Emotions
Promotional language serves as a pivotal cue for con-sumers cognitively engaging with promotional activities.However,current research has not yet elucidated the distinct effects between conditional and motivational promotional language on consumer emotions.Therefore,to systematically reveal specific effects of different promotional language in inducing different future-ori-ented emotions,this study explores the division of labor between conditional and motivational promotional language in inducing future-oriented emotions.The starting points of this exploration are the two features of promotion,namely promotional conditionality and material incentive,the conditional sentences naturally present-ed by them,and individuals'prefactual thinking prevalent in future event decision-making.Drawing upon three sets of six psychological experiments,this study yields the following conclusions.Firstly,the occurrence of anticipated emotions is strongly tied to motivational promotional language.(1)Motivational promotional language significantly in-cludes stronger anticipated rejoice and anticipated regret than hope and anxiety.(2)The display of motivational promotional language strengthens its inducing effects on these anticipated emotions.(3)Promotional language with a higher degree of incentive induces stronger anticipated emotions.Secondly,the outcome simulation of future events mediates the relationship between motivational pro-motional language and anticipated emotions.Thirdly,the emergence of anticipatory emotions is highly related to conditional promotional language.(1)Conditional promotional language significantly in-duces stronger hope and anxiety than anticipated rejoice and antic-ipated regret.(2)The display of conditional promotional language strengthens its inducing effects on these anticipatory emotions.(3)Promotional language with stricter conditions elicits stronger hope and anxiety than that with weaker conditions.Fourthly,the process simulation of achieving future goals mediates the relationship be-tween conditional promotional language and anticipatory emotions.By dividing promotional language into conditional and motiva-tional categories based on the intrinsic relation between the two fundamental features of promotion,this study broadens the research scope of promotional decision-making and future-oriented emo-tion.Moreover,it lays a foundation for systematic exploration of the psycholinguistic mechanisms of promotion inducing consumer emotions based on conditional sentences.Furthermore,it contrib-utes significantly to advancing the theoretical study of promotional decision-making and future-oriented emotions.Specifically,rather than regarding promotion as a whole,this research confirms the corresponding relationship between motivational promotional lan-guage and anticipated emotions,as well as the relationship between conditional promotional language and anticipatory emotions,based on the division of labor within conditional sentences.It validates the motivational function of anticipated emotions and the informational function of anticipatory emotions.Notably,motivational promo-tional language is crucial for enhancing the impact of conditional promotional language.The focus on motivational language further amplifies the influence of conditional language.Additionally,this study integrates conditionality evaluations to refine the mechanism of anticipatory emotions'occurrence,building upon prior explora-tions of the relationship between the valence of imagined outcomes and anticipated emotions within the context of mental simulation.Practically,this study offers guidance for enterprises to design promotional language aligned with their key objectives.It also facilitates consumers'comprehension of the linguistic objectives underlying promotional designs and provides a basis for regulatory authorities to require explicit language cues for conditionality and material incentives.Overall,this research fortifies the psycholin-guistic foundation for promotional decision-making research and points the way to enhancing the effectiveness of promotional adver-tisement.
Motivational Promotional LanguageConditional Promotional LanguagePrefactual ThinkingFuture-oriented Emo-tionsDivision of Labor
万方数据
维普
