314 Understanding Emotional Decision Making
to accomplishing a pragmatic goal such as buying groceries.^34 Thus, a consumer’s decision to buy
a vacation package is more likely to be based on emotions than is their decision to buy a mobile
phone plan.^35 Consumers’ evaluations of certain product attributes such as styling are also more
likely to be based on emotions than their evaluations of other types of product attributes such
as cost.^36 Sometimes audiences rely more on emotion than reason simply because they lack the
motivation, ability, or opportunity to process all the information required for making a totally
rational decision.^37
An ad’s ability to evoke emotions often determines the purchase intentions of its audience. In astudy of ad formats, consumers read four versions of an ad for a hypothetical brand of facial tissues
and were asked to decide if they wanted to purchase the product. One version contained only an
emotionally neutral verbal claim about the product. Two versions contained the same verbal claim
together with a headline and two different, but emotionally positive, photographs. The fourth
version contained the same verbal claim as well as a headline and an emotionally neutral photo-
graph. The two versions containing the emotionally positive photographs elicited the most positive
emotions. Moreover, the more positive a consumer’s emotional reaction to a version of the ad, the
greater their intention to purchase the product.^38 Related studies of advertising confi rm that when
rational responses to the product are statistically controlled for, consumers’ emotional reactions to
ads account for a signifi cant amount of the variance in their attitudes toward the brand,^39 especially
toward new brands.^40
Jurors’ verdicts are infl uenced by their emotional reactions to pre-trial publicity. In one study,mock jurors read either factual news reports describing the defendant’s previous convictions and
the discovery of incriminating evidence or emotional pretrial publicity that identifi ed the defen-
dant as a suspect in a hit-and-run killing of a child. The emotional pretrial publicity produced a
20% higher conviction rate than the factual pretrial publicity, despite judicial instructions to dis-
count the pretrial publicity altogether.^41
The Positive Impact of Emotions on Decision Making
The impact of emotions on audience decision making is mostly positive. Emotions help the
audience recognize the personal signifi cance of the information they use to make judgments and
decisions,^42 and to recognize the desirability of different alternatives as well.^43 Emotions also help
the audience recognize the moral and aesthetic values implicated by their decisions.^44
Surprisingly, audience decisions based on emotions are sometimes more accurate than deci-sions based on analytic reasoning. In a study that compared novices to experts, the ratings of
consumers who were asked how much they liked the taste of various brands of jam corre-
sponded better with ratings of gustatory experts than ratings of consumers who were asked to
rationally justify their preferences.^45 In a follow-up study, consumers who were asked to choose
the poster they liked most ended up liking the poster they chose more than consumers who
were asked to analyze each poster along several attributes or decision criteria before making
their fi nal choice.^46
Emotions also provide the audience with the motivation necessary to implement theirdecisions.^47 Traditional decision theory assumes that once an audience member chooses an
appropriate course of action she will automatically take it. But many studies of decision
making have shown that although audience members may decide to do what is best, they
do not necessarily do what is best.^48 Emotions provide the audience with the motivation to
follow through.