When does humor enhance or inhibit AD responses? The moderating role of the need for humor

Humor is often featured in consumer advertisements, yet its effects and the mechanisms by which they operate have not been fully elucidated. Previous studies have shown humor to enhance, inhibit, or have no effect on consumers' responses to advertisements. Clearly, there are boundary conditions governing the operation of humor. The authors report a program of experimentation that examines one such contingency: an individual's "need for humor." Need for humor (NFH) is a trait that refers to a person's tendency to generate and seek out humor. Humor was manipulated in three studies using print ads and NFH was measured. Dependent variables included various measures of advertising effectiveness. Results of Study I show the impact of humor on attitude toward the ad to be moderated by NFH, such that humor influences only higher-NFH subjects. Results of Study 2 show a similar moderating effect of NFH, which is further qualified by the need for cognition (NFC), suggesting that the motivation to process may help explain the key finding. Study 3 provides additional evidence of a three-way interaction of humor, NFH, and NFC, and offers a process explanation using path modeling.