Celebration Colloquium - Taylor, Gerckens, Foley - Psychology

The Effect of Violent and Humorous Programming on Advertisement Retention - Bushman et. al. studied the effects of program content on viewers memory of the advertisements during the television show. They found that commercials were less likely to be remembered if they were shown during a violent or sexual program, regardless of the type or valence of the advertisements. Using this research, the current study takes this idea one step further. We propose that not only will violent television shows produce less ad recall, but that humorous programs will increase ad recall. It has been previously shown that positive affect and mood result in better memory. This positive affect will be induced during a humorous program, and thus the advertisements will be better remembered. Participants were shown 15 minute videos, either violent, humorous, or neutral, with a short commercial break consisting of 3 ads. We expect the humorous condition to produce better ad recall than the neutral, and the violent condition to produce worse recall.

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