Research on consumer cognitive response has focused
primarily on the issue of persuasiveness of advertising com
munications. Involvement states have been frequently
proposed as mediators of cognitive responses. This article
proposes extending cognitive responses and their interaction
with involvement to the measurement of disconfirmation
resulting from a product trial experience which is designed
to be inconsistent with prior expectations derived from adver
tising exposure. Such expectations are manipulated by vary
ing levels of exaggeration in one and two-sided
advertisements. High and low involvement with the response
task is also introduced, and hypotheses are presented as to
the effects of involvement, exaggeration, and two-sided
presentations on disconfirmation and cognitive responses.
The findings suggest that exaggeration increases discon
firmation and counterargumentation, especially in high in
volvement conditions, and that two-sided refutational ads
tend to moderate these effects. More broadly, the article sug
gests that examination of cognitive responses should be ex
tended beyond evaluation of advertising stimuli and should
be used to evaluate the post-trial experience.
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