A commercial for a bank features the father of a little girl imagining his daughter on her wedding day and feeling both happy and sad. The use of such a mixed emotions appeal can evoke poignant responses in viewers, but advertisers need to be aware that not everyone will be comfortable with that - a result which could make them regard the advertisement less favorably.

Jiewen Hong of HKUST and her co-author Angela Y. Lee investigated responses to mixed emotions appeal, in particular the conditions that affect message persuasiveness.

"Recent research suggests that when people experience emotions of opposite valence at the same time, they enter into a conflicting psychological state and feel torn and uncomfortable. The discomfort evoked by advertisements using mixed emotions appeals can lead to less favorable attitudes towards the ads as compared to those that employ a pure positive emotional appeal such as happiness," they say.

The authors considered whether this discomfort is affected by people's "construal" level, which is how abstractly or concretely they represent information in their memory. People with a high-construal level think more abstractly and reflect a more general understanding of actions and events, while a low-construal level is associated with focusing on details and specifics. High construals are expected to handle the duality of mixed emotions appeals better than low construals.

To link this more closely to advertising and targeted customers, the authors also consider the different construal levels associated with age and culture and how these affected people's reactions to mixed appeal ads. Older people have been shown in other research to have higher construal levels over younger ones, as have Chinese over North Americans.

Several experiments were carried out involving student and non-student groups. The participants' construal levels were measured, they were shown happy and mixed emotion appeals, and their levels of discomfort and assessments of the ad were compared. In one test the construal levels were manipulated to confirm that these were in fact affecting reactions, and in another participants were asked to record their thoughts on the advertisement to show their thinking processes did in fact reflect their construal levels.

The results supported the role of construal levels in determining both people's discomfort level and also their evaluation of the advertisement.

"People with high construal levels experienced less discomfort and responded more favorably to mixed emotions appeals relative to those with low levels. Furthermore, while people with low levels responded less favorably to mixed emotions appeals than happy ones, the high level group responded equally or even more favorably to mixed emotions appeals," the authors said.

The chronic construal levels associated with age also affected participants' discomfort and assessment of the ads, as shown in an experiment involving people aged 19 to 70. Construal levels had a partial impact based on culture, as shown in an experiment involving students in North America and Hong Kong. However, the authors said there may be factors other than discomfort at work here and this warranted further research.

Overall, the findings suggest that producers of mixed emotions appeals should frame the benefits of the advertised products at a higher, more abstract level to reduce viewers' discomfort and potential negative reactions.

"Given the close relationship between construal level and temporal distance, advertisers could consider setting a longer time frame in a mixed emotions appeal to induce a high-level construal," they said.

Much like the bank commercial in which the father looks years into the future.