Dual Attitudes toward the Model’s Race in Advertising

Abstract

The current research investigated the effect of model’s race on attitude toward the ad employing stringent methodology to achieve a high degree of internal validity. In an attempt to test the possibility of dual attitudes, we compared participants’ reactions with advertising model’s race by using both time-unconstrained and time-constrained measures. As a result, both African and Caucasian Americans reported similar attitudes toward ads with either African or Caucasian American models under a time-unconstrained condition. Under a time-constrained condition, Caucasian American participants did not report differences in their attitudes toward models of different races. Moreover, African American participants reported more positive attitudes toward the ad with Caucasian American models than with African American models. A similar pattern of reporting attitudes under a time-constrained condition was found when examining reaction times. The implications and contributions are discussed.