Does the Frame of a Comparative Ad Moderate the Effectiveness of Extrinsic Information Cues?

This research investigates how framing moderates the use of message cues on performance risk evaluations. Understanding the moderating impact of the frame is important from a theoretical perspective as the frame is a critical contingency factor in how evaluations are formed. This research extends previous results by testing whether framing affects the use of other extrinsic cues, determining the effect when there are multiple extrinsic cues, determining the impact when extrinsic information is not explicitly provided, and providing evidence that positively framed messages engender more thorough analysis of message cues than negatively framed messages and affect how extrinsic cues are used. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..