To help students appreciate the impact of dispositions on social behavior, I demonstrate to them how a particular disposition (self-monitoring propensity) relates to interesting differences in consumer behavior. Specifically, this exercise illustrates that individuals high in self-monitoring tend to be more responsive to advertisements that appeal to the image of a product, whereas those low in self-monitoring tend to be more responsive to advertisements that make claims about the quality of a product. Students in a social psychology course evaluated the demonstration as interesting, informative, and effective.
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