Representative but irrelevant arguments in advertising

Authors

Charles S. Areni, University of SydneyFollow

RIS ID

108669

Publication Details

Areni, C. S. (2010). Representative but irrelevant arguments in advertising. Proceeding of the ANZMAC 2010 Conference (pp. 1-7). New Zealand: University of Canterbury.

Link to publisher version (URL)

Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference 2010

Abstract

A representative but irrelevant conditional is an if-then statement that implies, but does not logically establish, a link between evidence and a product claim. For example, in the argument "If kids are cramped, then they will start fighting. Model X has plenty of room. What's left to fight about?" the product claim (i.e., no fighting) does not follow from the conditional, which states what happens when there is a lack of space, but logically establishes nothing about what happens when there is plenty of space in a car. In a lab experiment, subjects exposed to an actual 30-second TV ad based their acceptance of the claim more on an irrelevant but representative conditional than on a conditional that logically linked the evidence to the claim.