The Role of Affect and Gender in the Evaluation of New Products in Advertising Signaling Processes

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to examine the role of consumer's affect and gender in new products evaluations in advertising signaling processes. A factorial experiment is conducted comprising three factors: the valence of the consumers' mood, managed at two levels (positive and negative), the level of openness to feelings, which was not manipulated but measured and considered at two levels (low and high) and the sex of the respondent (male and female). The results suggest that the consumers' mood, when they are exposed to advertising signaling actions, does not influence their judgment of new products. However, supporting the hypotheses, an interactive effect between the level of openness to feelings and the individual's mood is identified in these processes, as well as a direct effect of the gender. Furthermore, the results also show a direct effect of the level of openness to feelings in the evaluation of the product quality