Participants (N = 500) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. After removing participants who failed an attention check (n = 8) and apparent automated responses (n = 5), we were left with a sample of 487 participants (300 men, 180 women, 7 non-binary; Mage = 32.45, SD = 10.92; 300 White, 50 Black, 50 Asian, 40 middle eastern, 40 Hispanic, 5 Indigenous, 2 multi-racial).
Example of a shortie
Participants viewed a cleverly funny (“When you want ramen instantly, but not instant ramen”) or purely funny (“You're too old for instant ramen”) advertisement for the brand Postmates. Both the clever and funny text were superimposed on the same picture of restaurant-quality ramen. (Howe, Zhou, Dias & Fitzsimons, 2022)
Example of a longie
Participants imagined they had been feeling burnt out lately and made some careless mistakes at work. They did not expect to lose their job but were dreading an upcoming performance review with their boss. Participants imagined texting a friend from work about the situation. In both conditions, the friend responded the following morning by leaving them breakfast (coffee and pastry) and a note on their desk that read: “Good morning sunshine! You sounded like you were having a rough day yesterday.” In both conditions, the friend stopped by to chat later in the day. However, the details regarding the breakfast, the accompanying note, and the later conversation were manipulated in order to frame the support as providing a gift versus a supportive conversation. Specifically, in the gift condition, the last line of the note read: “I got you a treat!” Participants were told this was not part of their routine because they did not usually buy breakfast for each other, and their friend did not get anything for themselves. Participants then imagined having a “normal conversation” with them later in the day. Finally, we told participants that when they arrived home, they felt supported by the “thoughtful gift.” In the supportive- conversation condition, the last line of the note read: “I'll stop by later for a chat!” Participants were told that the friend buying them breakfast was part of their routine because they alternated buying breakfast for each other and it was their friends' turn. Participants imagined having a “deep conversation” with their friend later in the day. Finally, we told participants that when they arrived home, they felt supported by the “thoughtful conversation.” (Howe, Wiener & Chartrand, 2024)
As a manipulation check, participants rated the ad on how clever (witty, clever, ingenious; α = 0.93) and funny (funny, humorous, comical; α = 0.97) it was on a seven-point scale from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely). The dependent variable was a 7-point bi-polar measure of brand attitude (unappealing: appealing; bad: good; unpleasant: pleasant; unfavorable: favorable; unlikable: likable; α = 0.93; Brown et al., 2010).
(source: Howe, Zhou, Dias & Fitzsimons, 2022)