Marieke Fransen

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Amsterdam

Objective: In most countries, vaccine uptake is a voluntary decision. If people experience threats to this freedom, for example, by pro-vaccination media campaigns or government pressure, psychological reactance may be induced. To regain freedom, the opposite behaviour (vaccine refusal) may become more attractive, forming a vaccination barrier. It...

Resistance toward persuasion has received more and more attention in the past decades to explain the ineffectiveness of (threatening) health messages. In the literature, several motivations for resistance and strategies to resist health messages (i.e., defensive responses) have been identified and studied. Moreover, research on persuasive strategie...

Online vaccine-critical sentiments are often expressed in appealing personal narratives, whereas vaccine-supporting information is often presented in a non-narrative, expository mode describing scientific facts. In two experiments, we empirically test whether and how these different formats impact the way in which readers process and retrieve infor...

Influencer marketing has become an invaluable marketing tool. Integrating commercial messages into the social media posts of ‘influencers’ with a large follower base has become a trending and effective way for advertisers to promote their products. Since viewers may be unaware that the creative content of their favorite influencers on Instagram and...

When looking for health information, many people turn to the Internet. Searching for online health information (OHI), however, also involves the risk of confirmation bias by means of selective exposure to information that confirms one’s existing beliefs and a biased evaluation of this information. This study tests whether biased selection and biase...

Creative media (CM) advertising is an advertising strategy wherein a non-traditional medium is creatively used for advertising purposes. This novel advertising strategy is gaining marketers’ interest; however, little is known about its persuasive effects on consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioural responses and the processes that underlie th...

In this work we examine the interactive effect of packaging design and explicit packaging cues on quality inferences. Although the effect of explicit cues on product perception has been studied extensively, systematic research on this topic is still in its infancy. Furthermore, it has never been investigated whether design cues and explicit cues in...

The inclusion of branded products in media entertainment has become a popular marketing strategy, because viewers are less likely to recognize the persuasive intent of sponsored content as compared with traditional advertising. To guarantee fair communication and protect consumers against unobtrusive persuasion attempts, European media policy has o...

Nowadays, entertainment-education (E-E) is often used as a persuasive strategy to stimulate prosocial behavior. Although E-E is mostly regarded as a persuasive strategy in itself, in an increasing number of E-E programs several persuasive strategies are used to communicate the educational message to the audience. This study investigates the effects...

From the literature on resistance to persuasion in advertising, much is known about how people can resist advertising by adopting resistance strategies, such as avoidance, counter-arguing, and selective attention (e.g., Fransen et al., 2015b). However, the role of emotion regulation and bodily expression in resisting persuasion is so far underexplo...

This article presents two studies examining the effects of disclosing online native advertising (i.e., sponsored content in blogs) on people’s brand attitude and purchase intentions. To investigate the mechanisms underlying these effects, we integrated resistance theories with the persuasion knowledge model. We theorize that disclosures activate pe...

. This study examined the effects of disclosure messages in entertainment-education (E-E) on attitudes toward hearing protection and attitude toward the source. In addition, the (mediating) role of the underlying mechanisms (i.e., transportation, identification, and counterarguing) was studied. In an experiment (N = 336), three different disclosure...

Persuasion is an important element of human communication. But in many situations, we resist rather than embrace persuasive attempts. Resistance to persuasion has been studied in many different disciplines, including communication science, psychology, and marketing. The present paper reviews and connects these diverse literatures, and provides an o...

Atypical food packaging draws attention in the retail environment, and therefore increases product salience. However, until now, no research has focused on how atypical packaging affects the persuasive impact of other food information. In the present study, we propose that atypical packaging enhances processing of product information, affecting pro...

This article presents a typology of the different ways in which consumers resist advertising, and the tactics that can be used to counter or avoid such resistance. It brings together literatures from different fields of study, including advertising, marketing, communication science and psychology. Although researchers in these subfields have shown...

Medical television drama series provide an important source of health information. This form of entertainment-education (E-E) can be used to influence knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward health-related issues. In the literature, E-E is generally regarded as a persuasive strategy in itself, whereas in an increasing number of E-E programs, sev...

Traditional strategies that help people to resist persuasive communication, such as warnings of persuasive intent, are explicit, effortful, and require cognitive capacity. Typically, however, message recipients are unable or unmotivated to allocate their cognitive resources to adopting resistance strategies that help them withstand persuasive messa...

Recent findings in consumer psychology demonstrate that embodied cognition and bodily mimicry may influence consumers’ attitudes, intentions, and behavior (e.g. Hung & Labroo, 2011; Howard & Gengler, 2001). For example, when two friends (Bill and John) watch a funny advertisement and they both smile this might facilitate each other’s expressiveness...

We present a psychophysiological study of facial expressions of happiness (FEH) produced by advertisements using the FaceReader system (Noldus, 2013) for automatic analysis of facial expressions of basic emotions (FEBE; Ekman, 1972). FaceReader scores were associated with self-reports of the advertisement’s effectiveness. Building on work describin...

Inspired by the increasing importance of packaging design for product and brand management, this study tests effects of movement visuals and location of imagery on sensorial product impressions. Participants were exposed to a packaging variant for a fictitious brand of washing powder. Subsequently, they smelled packaging contents, estimated package...

This quasi-experimental field study examines whether companies can improve the effectiveness of their sponsorship investments by creating a brand experience. Data were collected among participants of a sponsored marathon. During this event participants had the opportunity to engage in an experience orchestrated by one of the main sponsors of the ev...

The present research examines the effects of vivid ad content in two types of appeal in print ads as a function of individual differences in chronically experienced vividness of visual imagery. For informational ads for a functional product, vivid ad content strongly affected individuals high in reported vividness of visual imagery, in that the viv...

Based on embodiment research linking visual-spatial design parameters to symbolic meaning portrayal, this study investigates to what extent location of imagery on product packaging and visual devices portraying movement (i.e., an arrow indicating movement along an upward-headed or downward-headed trajectory) affect smell and weight impressions. To...

The experiments presented here examine how managers and executives can improve the effectiveness of their negative written communications (i.e., refusal of employees’ requests) by incorporating the concept of fit into their message framing. By applying regulatory focus theory, the authors suggest that an outcome-based fit between the message and th...

‘Where the action is’: Events as a marketing communication tool ‘Where the action is’: Events as a marketing communication tool Despite the increasing use of event marketing in the field of marketing communication, the academia has paid surprisingly little empirical attention to this widely emerging phenomenon. In the present research we defined ev...

Terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg et al., 1986) suggests that reminders of death intensify the desire to express cultural norms leading to culturally prescribed behavior such as charitable giving, church attendance, and exorbitant spending. Living up to these norms provides high levels of self-esteem, which can serve as a buffer against exis...

The present research extends work on the ‘the value from fit’ principle by showing that regulatory fit effects on persuasion and behavioral compliance are stronger for people high, as opposed to low, in private self-focus. Previous research has shown that people high in private self-focus are strongly affected by external information. In the curren...

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of attending to experiential aspects of consumption. These days, ‘consumers don’t buy a product; they buy value in the form of entertainment, experience, and identity’ (Esslinger, in Sweet 1999; see also Holbrook, 2000; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1981; Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Schmitt, 1999). In additio...

MARIEKE FRANSEN, THOMAS VAN ROMPAY & NICOLE VAN DER PLAS 'Where the action is': Events as a marketing communication tool Despite the increasing use of event marketing in the field of marketing communication, the academia has paid surprisingly little empirical attention to this widely emerging phenomenon. In the present research we defined event mar...

Previous research has shown that prior brand exposure (e.g., through advertising) can positively influence brand consideration, brand attitudes, and brand choice. In the present studies, the authors argue that the effects of prior brand exposure depend on the communication modality (visual vs. aural) in which exposure (i.e., advertising) takes plac...

The present study examines how communicated messages could be effective in affecting consumers' attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding genetically modified (GM) foods. Based on Regulatory Focus Theory, it was hypothesized that exposure to a communication message matching a consumer's regulatory orientation (i.e. regulatory fit) leads to mor...

Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon 1986) suggests that reminders of death intensify the desire to express cultural norms leading to culturally prescribed behavior. Living up to these norms provides high levels of self-esteem serving as a buffer against existential anxiety. In the present paper we argue that people ca...

This study addresses the effects of security cameras on prosocial behavior. Results from previous studies indicate that the presence of others can trigger helping behavior, arising from the need for approval of others. Extending these findings, the authors propose that security cameras can likewise trigger such approval-seeking behaviors by implyin...

This study addresses the effects of security cameras on prosocial behavior. Results from previous studies indicate that the presence of others can trigger helping behavior, arising from the need for approval of others. Extending these findings, the authors propose that security cameras can likewise trigger such approval-seeking behaviors by implyin...

The present research extends work on the ‘the value from fit’ principle by showing that regulatory fit effects on charitable behavior are stronger for consumers high in private self-focus. Based on previous research showing that individuals high in private self-focus are more affected by external information, we propose that consumers high in priva...

The present research examines the hypothesis that brands can automatically activate mortality-related thoughts and, in turn, affect consumer behavior. Terror Management Theory (TMT; [Greenberg Jeff, Pyszczynski Tom, Solomon Sheldon. The Causes and Consequences of a Need for Self-esteem: A Terror Management Theory. In: Baumeister Roy F, editor. Publ...

Previous research has shown that decision-making strategies and attitudes are often influenced by affective states (e.g., Clore et al. 2005; Isen 2001). In the present studies, we propose that stress can be such an affective state that influences (product) evaluations. Based on the self-regulation model (Baumeister, Heatheron, and Tice 1994), we hy...

Advertisers and marketers often try to influence consumers’ choices by creating advertising slogans that appeal to our future goals, dreams and wishes (e.g., “Let’s make things better”, “Just do it”, “Be all you can be”). Associating brands with personal dreams and ambitions may imply that purchasing these brands can help us achieve and express our...

In dit onderzoek stellen we dat individuen een grotere bereidheid tonen om een goed doel te steunen wanneer de regulatieve focus (promotie versus preventie) overeenkomt met de wijze waarop een goed doel zijn boodschap presenteert (‘gericht op behalen van winst’ versus ‘gericht op voorkomen van verlies’). We verwachten bovendien dat bovengenoemde ‘r...

Onderzoek heeft laten zien dat herhaalde merkblootstelling (bijvoorbeeld door adverteren) een positieve invloed kan hebben op merkattitudes en merkkeuze. In de huidige studies veronderstellen we dat de effecten van voorafgaande merkblootstelling afhankelijk zijn van de interactie tussen de communicatiemodaliteit (visueel versus auditief) waarin mer...